The application system will produce a single offer per pupil

In an attempt to reduce the stress in applying for school places a joint register for allocating places has been set up by 41 local authorities.

Parents will make six preferences - and will then all receive a single offer of a school place on the same day.

School Minister Stephen Twigg says it will reduce parents' "anxiety".

Launching the London Schools Admissions System, Mr Twigg said that the admissions process in the capital could be "fraught and contentious".

One offer

But he hoped that the "pan-London register" to be introduced will "simplify and reduce confusion" in the allocation of secondary school places.

The system will allow parents to put forward six preferred schools, anywhere in London - which will then be processed against available places and the admissions criteria of these schools.

Stephen Twigg says this will produce a simpler and fairer system

This will generate a "single best offer" for each pupil - which means that each family will be offered a place at one school, based on their own highest preferences and availability.

The big change here will be that pupils will not be able to hold a number of places from different schools or authorities.

This practice of holding places, as parents have waited to hear about the results of applications to a range of different schools, will now be removed, as each family will receive only one offer, to be made on 1 March.

As well as cutting out the holding of multiple places, this single date for offering places is intended to lessen the problem of different schools offering different deadlines, which can stretch out the application process over several months.

"It is not acceptable for one pupil to have three or four places - while another in the same class has none and might not know where they were going until July or even September," said Mr Twigg.

Anxious parents

There was support for the scheme from a number of local authority representatives, who illustrated the complexity of the current education "market" - as tens of thousands of parents seek secondary school places across dozens of different local authorities.

A head teacher from Surrey said that 60% of her pupils were resident in London - and a representative from Bromley said that in his borough alone there were 17 different admissions systems operating.

And a representative from Greenwich council said that this might cut out the anxiety for parents who have to wait almost until school starts before they know where they will be attending.

The system will be used by state schools within and around London - with the exception that city academies will be allowed to opt in or out of the applications system.

Ian Birnbaum, chief education officer in Sutton and project manager, said that this could offer a much simpler and clearer way for parents to express their preferences.

He also emphasised that this was a way of improving the applications process - but the question of how schools admitted pupils was a separate matter.

And schools which are over-subscribed will still have to find ways to decide who they will admit and who they will turn away.

Mr Birnbaum also said there were plans to allow parents to apply online for school places.

Louisa Woodley, chair of the Association of London Government education panel, said that there would still be scope for appeals after places had been offered.

School admissions and applications are increasingly coming under the political spotlight - with the Conservatives promising to unveil policies which will promote increased "school choice" for parents.

The House of Commons Education Select Committee is also set to report on the admissions process - with suggestions that they will say that in practice, parents often have too little choice.