Summary: We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint about a school’s actions. This is because we cannot investigate complaints about what happens in schools. We will not investigate the Council’s Local Authority Designated Officer safeguarding process as we are unlikely to find fault with the Council. We also cannot achieve the outcome Mr X seeks.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains that a school’s disciplinary record wrongly documents safeguarding actions and outcomes by the Council’s Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) service. He says the Council failed to properly investigate how the school falsified documents. Mr X says these problems have caused him distress. He wants the Council to tell the school to correct its records, apologise to Mr X and make a financial payment to him.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. We cannot investigate most complaints about what happens in schools. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5, paragraph 5(2), as amended)
4. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating., or

we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. Mr X was employed at an academy school. He said the school made two allegations against him. Mr X said the school falsified disciplinary documents to suggest the Council’s LADO process had been involved.
8. The LADO is a person responsible for managing and overseeing investigations into allegations that somebody who works with children has behaved in a way that may pose a risk to children.
9. The Council confirmed the school did not complete a referral form to its LADO. It said the allegations did not meet the threshold for LADO to be involved and gave advice to the school. Our investigation is unlikely to find fault. The Council has explained its involvement following contact by the school and was entitled to decide the allegations did not meet the threshold for a LADO investigation.
10. Mr X has complained about the school’s records. We cannot investigate most concerns about what happens in schools and we cannot consider complaints about academy schools. Therefore, we have no power to investigate if the school falsified documents.
11. I understand Mr X wants the Council to tell the school to make its records correct. The Ombudsman cannot require the Council to direct an academy school to amend its records or take disciplinary action. Academies operate independently and are not under the Council’s control. Therefore we cannot achieve the outcome Mr X wants.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because we are unlikely to find fault with the Council’s LADO involvement. We are unable to achieve the outcome Mr X seeks about the errors in the school’s documents, and we cannot investigate issues that happened in schools.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman