Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint that the Council’s children’s services failed to advocate for her child to remain on roll at school. This is because the actions of the Council’s children’s services did not cause the injustice that Mrs X describes.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains that the Council’s children’s services failed to advocate for her son to remain on roll at school. Mrs X says this meant her son has gone without education causing distress and regression. Mrs X also complains about poor communication.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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:

• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

Back to top

My assessment

5. I will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because the injustice she describes was not caused by the actions of the Council’s children’s services. Decisions around her child’s education are matters to be determined by schools, the Council’s Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) service and the SEND Tribunal.
6. We have a separate complaint from Mrs X to consider the actions of the Council’s SEND service in relation to its decision making around her child being removed from the schools roll and this will consider any potential injustice caused by these decisions to either Mrs X or her child.
7. I will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about poor communication by the Council’s children’s service. Whilst I acknowledge poor communication can cause a certain level of frustration, I do not consider that this alone constitutes a significant enough injustice to warrant investigation.

Back to top

Final decision

8. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because the actions of the Council’s children’s services did not cause the injustice that Mrs X describes

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman