By Joe Locker, Local Democracy Reporter
Nottinghamshire County Council has sought to reassure parents and carers after a system crash left people unable to confirm primary school places offered to their children.
Parents and carers in the county must apply for places through the Conservative-run council’s online schools admissions portal.
Once places have been offered, they must then be accepted through the system.
However, a number of parents were only greeted with an error message when trying to submit their details on Tuesday, April 16, leaving them uncertain as to whether their confirmation had been accepted.
The council has apologised but says many acceptances were getting through despite the error message.
Cllr Michelle Welsh, Labour County Councillor for Arnold South and Gedling borough councillor for Porchester, said she was unable to confirm acceptance of her son’s place.
She told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “I have been contacted by a lot of parents that are unable to accept their school place.
“Some have received email confirmation and others haven’t. It is total chaos once again.”
Nottinghamshire County Council says more than 9,000 were accepted in the morning, but added its software provider is urgently investigating the issue.
Cllr Welsh said a similar problem plagued parents on secondary school offer day in March, and parents took to the council’s Facebook comments section to raise their concerns at the time.
The portal page shows an error message which reads “save failed”, highlighted in red, when a parent attempts to log their offer response.
Cllr Welsh said: “When you accept the offer you should get an email confirming the place. So not only is it not working and crashing in my case, but a lot of those 9,000 haven’t received the confirmation email.
“It is like buying something online and not getting the confirmation email and receipt. It is an utter mess.”
A Nottinghamshire County Council spokesperson said: “We are aware of an issue that some parents and carers are experiencing when accepting their school place and we would like to apologies to anyone affected.
“The council’s software provider is urgently investigating. However, we would like to reassure families that the system itself is working, despite the error message, and we have had more than 9,000 places accepted so far this morning.
“We are confident that these technical difficulties will not affect the school offers and families have until 30 April to accept their place.”
