ADMISSIONS arrangements to Kent’s secondary schools are set to change yet again next year after the intervention of the Education Secretary Charles Clarke.

In the latest twist to the saga over Kent’s 11-plus and school applications, Mr Clarke has, for the first time, used his power to impose what is known as a co-ordinated admissions scheme on the county.

This sets the shape of arrangements for Kent in 2004-05. No final decision will be made until mid-August to allow time for schools to respond to his plans.

Mr Clarke was called in to rule after Kent County Council was unable to get the agreement of all its schools to its plans.

One of the main consequences of the ruling is that those schools giving greater priority to applications from pupils who do not enter the 11-plus, could be allowed to continue to do so.

KCC had wanted to end this practice, known as “conditionality,” saying it discriminated against those who wished to sit the 11-plus.

Under its scheme, places would have been allocated without schools knowing where else parents had applied and KCC would have acted as the “clearing house” for all applications.

However, Mr Clarke says Kent County Council should have a scheme effectively permitting the policy, operated by fifteen foundation and voluntary aided secondary schools, to continue.

In a letter to schools, he says: “It is very difficult to formulate a scheme that works well for everybody in Kent. But the interests of parents and children must be put first.”

He has told KCC to share with schools “relevant details” which they need to apply to their admissions criteria. This will mean sharing preference lists, which will show whether pupils are sitting the 11-plus.

In other proposed changes, pupils will sit the 11-plus next year in January instead of November. Parents will initially express three preferences in ranked order in late November and all secondary places will be allocated on a common date -- March 1.

The news has drawn a mixed reaction. County council leaders expressed dismay but foundation and church schools welcomed Mr Clarke’s intervention.

Cllr Paul Carter, KCC's cabinet member for education, said: “Our proposals were much better in that they gave us the power to impose one set of rules across all secondary schools and allowed for a system of equal preferences and to make allocations after the 11-plus.”

“Conditionality is strongly against the interests of pupils. Those schools who are using it as the battle ground against selection are wholly wrong. It places parents in an impossible situation.”

Council leader Sir Sandy Bruce-Lockhart echoed: “This has thrown into complete disarray the system we would have liked and the system we want to move to.”

But Martin Frey, vice chairman of governors at Homewood School, said: “The new scheme will help parents by introducing consistency into the process.

"Kent's original scheme tried to impose uniformity rather than consistency and would have reduced parental choice and the diversity of school provision in Kent.”

Simon Parr, of the Catholic Diocesan Board which represents the county’s six Catholic schools, said: “In general, we welcome this as it does support the arrangements we wanted all along.”

The scheme will now go out to public consultation for a month but even then, that may not be the end of the matter. The Schools Adjudicator has yet to rule on a number of separate challenges about admissions.

Decisions on those challenges may not be announced until the start of the Autumn term – and possibly later.