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Withdrawing offers of places1.50 Once an offer of a school place has been made it is only reasonable for anadmission authority to withdraw that offer in very limited circumstances. Thesemay include when a parent has failed to respond to an offer within a reasonabletime or the admission authority offered the place on the basis of a fraudulent orintentionally misleading application from a parent (for example, a false claim toresidence in a catchment area) which effectively denied a place to anotherchild; or where a place was offered under co-ordination by the local authority,not the admission authority, in error. If a parent has not responded to the offerof a place within a reasonable time, the admission authority must remind theparent of the need to respond within a further seven days and point out that theplace may be withdrawn if they do not.1.51 A school must not withdraw a place once a child has started at the school,except where that place was fraudulently obtained. In deciding whether towithdraw the place, the length of time that the child had been at the schoolmust be taken into account, for example, it might be considered appropriate towithdraw the place if the child has been at the school for less than one term.Where a place is withdrawn on the basis of misleading information, theapplication must be considered afresh, and a right of appeal offered if a placeis refused.Interviews1.52 Section 88A of the SSFA 1998 prohibits the interviewing of parents and/orchildren as a method for deciding whether a child is to be offered a place at aschool. Interviews must not form part of the admissions process andadmission authorities must not use either face-to-face interviews or interviewsby telephone or other means. Open days, meetings to discuss options, andother events for prospective parents and children are not affected (seeparagraph 1.75).1.53 This prohibition does not apply to interviews conducted by boarding schoolssolely for the purpose of assessing a child’s suitability for a boarding place, orto auditions or other oral or practical tests in order to ascertain a child’s aptitudein a particular subject at schools with a permitted form of selection by aptitudein accordance with section 99(4) of the SSFA 1998.26