In 2015, then education minister - and now schools minister - Nick Gibb urged schools and local authorities to take immediate action to ensure summer-born children could start in reception class at the age of five, rather than when they had just turned four.
A new research report published by the Department for Education suggests councils have responded to Gibb's call for a more conciliatory approach between admissions authorities and parents.
What are the key findings?
The study by Katie Abrahams and Rob Cirin of Government Social Research found 62 per cent of councils said they are more likely to grant requests than previously.
The proportion of requests for delayed admission granted by the 62 councils that participated in this survey and a previous one in 2017 rose from 86 to 88 per cent. This represented a rise of eight percentage points on the 80 per cent of requests granted in 2016.
The data also shows there was a one per cent decline in the number of requests to delay school entry between 2018-19 among the 62 councils that completed both surveys. By comparison, there had been a rise of 83 per cent between 2016-17 and 31 per cent between 2017-18.
Is there a uniform picture?
No. The survey results indicate a general widening in council policies on delayed entry.
Of the 94 authorities that participated in the survey, the proportion of applications granted from councils that agreed to all requests and those that asked parents to make a case but were more inclined to allow delay both increased by four percentage points. However, the proportion of successful applications fell at councils that only granted a delay for very strong cases (see graphics).
The report states that authorities "continue to be varied in their approach for delayed entry", with little change in the proportion of councils - 30 per cent - that only allow delay in "very strong" cases.
The Summer Born Campaign group has highlighted the "postcode lottery" in local authority policies, with evidence emerging in some areas of children who delay school entry missing out on reception year as a result.
What does the law say?
Admissions regulations already state that parents can keep children out of school until compulsory school age - which is the start of the school term following their fifth birthday. But many authorities insist that summer-born children move straight into a year 1 class, potentially missing up to a year of schooling and joining a class where friendship groups are already established. Amendments to the admissions code dating from 2014 left the decision of which year to place a five-year-old in up to the local authority.
In 2015, Gibb promised new legislation would prevent schools insisting children who had delayed entry to school must skip a year later on. But so far, there has been no further action, due to the need to find out more about costings.
What impact is this having?
Last year, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman produced guidance on how it will handle complaints relating to summer-born admissions.
Although the ombudsman was unable to confirm how many complaints it received last year relating to delayed admission, a search of its online complaints database shows details of nine cases - six of which were upheld.
In a number of cases, complaints were upheld because councils had failed to properly consider whether it was in the child's best interests to delay entry or to adequately communicate the reasons for rejecting an application. However, there were no examples of a council being incorrect in its decision to reject a deferral application.
The ombudsman says councils should follow the DfE's non-statutory guidance or show why they have "departed from it".
How are policies changing?
According to the DfE study, nine per cent of councils now allow summer-born children the automatic right to enter reception class at compulsory school age without any requirements for parents to provide reasons and evidence. One of these is Liverpool City Council, which introduced the policy after a campaign by parents. Since 2014, the number of requests to defer entry has more than doubled from 30 to 62 last year.
However, not all requests to delay materialise into full deferrals because sometimes parents use it "for the wrong reasons - for example, to secure a school of their preference the following year".
Why do parents want a delay?
By delaying school entry by up to a year, parents hope children will enter education more developmentally and emotionally mature.
The attainment gap between summer-born babies and their older peers gradually narrows during their early education, but remains significant even at the end of primary school, according to analysis by SchoolDash.
Its research shows that in reception year, four- and five-year-olds born in the summer achieve an average of 7.5 percentage points less in maths test, compared with non-summer-born peers. By year 3, the gap has narrowed to 5.5 percentage points, and by year 6 it has narrowed further to 3.6 percentage points. However, a paper by University of Exeter Medical School academics found that relative age had no impact on children's behaviour or happiness at school.
What happens next?
In a recent parliamentary debate on the issue, Gibb reaffirmed the government's commitment to "making the necessary changes to allow children to start reception at age five where this is what parents want", but said more work needed to be done to ensure the changes were made without having "unintended consequences". He did not elaborate on what this might be, but a planned consultation on the Schools Admissions Code in the autumn could finally lead to the much-promised new legislation.
