Who should see what in your admissions team

Most schools have never mapped who does what in admissions. Roles grew over time. Permissions were set up when a system first arrived and never reviewed. The admissions director sees everything, the registrar sees most things, the head looks in now and then, and the board gets a termly summary that may or may not match reality.

That is not a structure. It is a history. It becomes visible only when something goes wrong: a complaint, a data incident, an inspection. This post sets out a simple structure you can adopt in an afternoon.

Why it matters

Admissions data is about children. It includes assessment results, written work and sometimes sensitive background. Not everyone who is interested in admissions needs to see it.

Giving people the access they need, and no more, is good practice and a basic data protection principle. It also helps the work itself: when everyone knows their role, decisions move faster and nothing falls between people.

Four layers

Admissions team

The people who run admissions day to day. They register applicants, send assessment links, follow up, and record decisions. They need full access to individual student records and to the tools they use.

Senior leadership

The head, deputies and the person responsible for enrolment. They need everything the team has, plus the picture across the school: enrolment by year group, how applications are moving, and the numbers behind them.

Board chair

Governors need the strategic view, such as enrolment position and executive reports. A chair does not need access to individual children's records. Giving it creates exposure with no benefit.

Board members

Trustees and governors who want to understand how the school is doing. They should see the enrolment position and summary reports, and nothing about individual children.

A role and access table

Role	Individual student records	Run the process	School wide enrolment view	Executive reports
Admissions team	Yes	Yes	Limited	No
Senior leadership	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Board chair	No	No	Yes	Yes
Board members	No	No	Yes	Yes

Joiners, movers and leavers

Roles change during the year. Staff join, move and leave, and access needs to follow them.

• Joiners: give them the role that matches their job, not a copy of a colleague's access.
• Movers: when someone changes job, change their access the same week.
• Leavers: remove access on their last day. This is the step most often forgotten.

What good looks like in a typical week

Situation	Who acts	What they see
New application arrives	Admissions team	Applicant record and assessment link.
Borderline report arrives	Assessor and head of admissions	Full report with the child's writing.
Parent asks why a place was not offered	Head of admissions	The evidence and the dated record of the decision.
Board asks about next year's numbers	Board chair	Enrolment by year group, with no individual records.

Questions to ask this term

• Who can see individual student records today? Is that list longer than it needs to be?
• When someone leaves the school, how quickly is their access removed?
• Can you show, for any decision, who made it and when?
• Does the board see a current picture, or last term's summary?
• Who is responsible if something goes wrong? Is that written down?

Keep a record of decisions

Structure is only half of it. For each decision you should be able to see what evidence was used, who looked at it and who made the call. A simple dated log is enough. When a parent asks why, or a governor asks how decisions are made, you can answer with facts, not memory.

How Evalent Admissions supports this

Evalent Admissions uses role groups for the admissions team, senior leadership, board chair and board members. Board roles see the enrolment picture without individual student data. Every step is recorded in an audit trail.

You can see how Evalent Admissions works, or start a free trial and set up roles for your own team.