Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about a short delay in providing alternative education provision as there is no worthwhile outcome achievable. And we cannot investigate the education provided by a school.

The complaint

1. Mrs X, says the Council failed to provide her daughter Y, with a suitable education.

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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 there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
3. We cannot investigate most complaints about what happens in schools. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5, paragraph 5(2), as amended).

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by Mrs X and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Mrs X says Y has not been accessing school fully since February 2023 due to significant bullying issues that remain unresolved. She says the school imposed a part-time timetable for Y’s safety. She believes this was shared with the Council in May and in June 2023. She says the situation worsened and Y was missing a significant amount of education. In early October 2023, Mrs X removed Y from the school due to the effect on her mental health. The Council says Mrs X rejected a managed move to another school. And once a week tutoring started.
7. Five weeks later the Council offered another placement which Mrs X accepted.
8. Councils must arrange suitable education at school or elsewhere for pupils who are out of school because of exclusion, illness or for other reasons, if they would not receive suitable education without such arrangements. [The provision generally should be full-time unless it is not in the child’s interests.] (Education Act 1996, section 19). We refer to this as section 19 or alternative education provision.
9. There is no legal deadline to start provision. But it should be arranged as soon as it is clear a child will be absent for health reasons for more than 15 days. Guidance states more intensive forms of provision, such as one-to-one provision, need not be full-time.

Analysis

10. Mrs X’s complaint includes the education Y received at the school before October 2023. We cannot investigate the school’s provision of education during that period.
11. Once the Council is aware Y was out of school for health reasons, it had to decide if Y was likely to be out for more than 15 days. If so, it had to offer alternative provision. Here there is a two week gap between those 15 days and the alternative provision. We would not consider this significant enough to need any remedy.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because we cannot investigate the education the school provided. And there is no worthwhile outcome achievable for the short delay in providing alternative provision.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman