London Borough of Redbridge (21 002 394)
Category : Children's care services > Child protection
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 09 Aug 2021
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We cannot investigate this complaint about a letter the Council sent to the complainant about his communications with a school. This is because we cannot investigate the way a school manages its communication with parents, or the Council’s involvement in that.
The complaint
- The complainant, who I will call Mr C, complains about a letter the Council sent to him about his communication with the school that his children attend.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- We cannot investigate complaints about what happens in schools. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5, paragraph 5(b), as amended)
- The Courts have said that we cannot investigate a complaint about any action by a council, concerning a matter which is itself out of our jurisdiction. (R (on the application of M) v Commissioner for Local Administration [2006] EHWCC 2847 (Admin)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by Mr C and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- The Ombudsman has previously investigated a complaint from Mr C about how the Council dealt with child protection matters relating to his children. Mr C has since sent several emails to his children’s school about its role in these matters.
- The school found the contents of the emails to be inappropriate and wrote to him asking him to change how he communicates with the school in the future. The Council also wrote to Mr C informing him that it considered his behaviour to be unacceptable.
- I cannot investigate the way a school manages its communication with parents. This means we also cannot investigate the Council’s contribution to this including the letter Mr C complains about.
Final decision
- We cannot investigate Mr C’s complaint because we cannot investigate the Council’s involvement in the way a school manages its communication with parents.
Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman