Brighton and Hove Wins Sutton Trust Fair School Admissions Gold Award for Second Year Running
Brighton and Hove City Council has won the Sutton Trust Fair School Admissions Gold Award for the second consecutive year
Brighton and Hove City Council has been awarded the Sutton Trust Fair School Admissions Gold Award for the second consecutive year, the highest level of recognition the trust gives to local authorities, multi-academy trusts and schools that have made significant changes to their admissions policies to ensure all pupils have fair access to education regardless of socio-economic background.
The award was announced on 16 September 2026, recognising the council's continued work to tackle inequality and improve educational outcomes across the city.
What the Gold Award means
The Sutton Trust is an educational charity focused on improving social mobility and addressing educational disadvantage across the UK. Its Fair School Admissions programme has been running since March 2024, with 118 schools now signed up to the Fair School Admissions Pledge and 108 awards granted nationally.
The Gold Award is the highest tier of recognition and is given to councils and schools that have not only committed to change but have implemented concrete policy reforms to make school access fairer in practice.
What Brighton and Hove has changed
Brighton and Hove City Council agreed a series of significant changes to secondary school admissions in 2024 and 2025, all of which came into effect for the 2026 intake. The reforms were introduced to address falling pupil numbers across the city, improve equality and give families greater equity of choice.
Open admissions: The council introduced a new open admissions criterion reserving up to 5% of places in each of the city's community secondary schools for pupils who live in single-school catchment areas. This targets pupils in the catchment areas of BACA, PACA, Patcham and Longhill, giving them access to schools they would previously have had no realistic route into. For September 2026, 49 pupils were offered a place at an oversubscribed school directly as a result of this new criterion.
Free school meals priority: Brighton and Hove was one of the first local authorities in the country to introduce a policy giving pupils eligible for free school meals priority when applying for secondary school, up to the city average of 30%. For September 2026, 51 children obtained a place as a direct result of this priority. The policy aims to prevent the most socio-economically disadvantaged pupils from being locked out of popular schools.
Revised catchment areas: Catchment boundaries were redrawn to give communities that previously had access to only one secondary school the option of two, directly expanding choice for families in some of the city's more deprived areas.
The results so far
The first year of the reformed system has produced positive early results. 83.5% of families received an offer for their first preference school in 2026, up from 79.7% the previous year. Of the 2,270 pupils who applied, 1,921 were offered their first choice school. Just five pupils were not offered a place at any of their preferred schools.
The reforms have also shifted where families are applying. A number of families in central dual-catchment areas chose BACA, Longhill, Patcham and PACA as a first preference, suggesting the changes are already broadening the picture of where Brighton families see viable options for their children.
What Councillor Jacob Taylor said
Councillor Jacob Taylor, Deputy Leader of the Council, said: "We're thrilled that the Sutton Trust have once again recognised our work on school admissions and efforts to tackle inequality, create greater equity of opportunity and improve educational outcomes."
"For this school year, we've introduced a number of new policies to create a fairer school system with more choice for families and enable us to build a better future for children and young people in Brighton and Hove."
"Following the changes to our secondary school admission arrangements, 83.5% of families received an offer for their first preference school in 2026, an increase on last year, when 79.7% of families were offered their first preference."
"We've also recently seen a changing picture of preferences, with many families within the city's central dual-catchment areas choosing BACA, Longhill, Patcham and PACA as a first preference."
The campaign behind the change
The reforms did not happen in a vacuum. Brighton grassroots campaign Class Divide, founded by residents from the Whitehawk estate, spent five years pushing for exactly these kinds of changes after parents asked a simple question: could families on their estate ever access a wider range of secondary schools?
The Whitehawk estate is one of the poorest areas in the country. At the time the campaign began, just 34% of young people from the estate achieved GCSE English and maths at grade 5 or above, compared with 56% citywide and 75% in the highest-performing ward. The Sutton Trust's own Opportunity Index ranked Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven 527th out of 543 constituencies for free school meals pupils' education and employment outcomes.
Class Divide used petitions, public speeches and community organising to build cross-party support on the council. In February 2025, the council voted through the admissions changes. The Schools Adjudicator subsequently upheld all of them, ruling the changes lawful, fair and non-discriminatory after multiple appeals from parents and schools. The Sutton Trust published a full account of the campaign in November 2025.
Why this matters nationally
The Sutton Trust's own research makes clear why this kind of reform matters. Non-free school meals pupils are 50% more likely to access top schools in a catchment area than those eligible for free school meals. Top schools take 36% fewer free school meals eligible pupils receiving SEN support than live in their catchment area. And 78% of parents believe schools should have a fairer mix of pupils from different backgrounds.
Brighton and Hove's approach is now cited by the Sutton Trust as a case study in how local authorities can drive meaningful change through admissions reform. The council says it will be analysing the impact of its new policies over the coming months and years.
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