Summary: We will not investigate this complaint that the Council has failed to make appropriate alternative educational provision for the complainant’s daughter. There is insufficient evidence of fault on the Council’s part to warrant investigation.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Miss X complains that the Council has failed to make appropriate alternative educational provision for her daughter, who is unable to attend school.

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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 effect 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 an investigation if we decide the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

5. Miss X says her daughter cannot access mainstream education for medical reasons. She says that, as her daughter cannot access education, the Council’s duty under section 19 of the Education Act 1996 to make alternative provision is engaged. She complains that it has not done so and that it is therefore in breach of its duty to her daughter.
6. The correspondence Miss X has provided shows that the Council accepts its section 19 duty is engaged. It contends that it is meeting it through its Education Support for Medical Absence Teaching Service and reasonable adjustments made by Miss X’s daughter’s school to enable her to access learning. It says that the alternative provision it has offered is appropriate for Miss X’s daughter’s needs and that it is therefore discharging its section 19 duty.
7. The Ombudsman will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault on the Council’s part. The Council has properly set out the provision it has made available and why it believes it meets the section 19 duty. Its position appears defensible and proportionate. Miss X disagrees, but that does not mean the Council is demonstrably at fault.
8. It is not for us to decide whether the provision offered by the Education Support for Medical Absence Teaching Service and the school is appropriate for Miss X’s daughter. That is a decision for the professional judgment of the Council’s officers. There are no grounds for us to question the view the Council has taken, or intervene to substitute an alternative view. We cannot therefore find that the Council has not met its section 19 duty.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault on the Council’s part.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman