Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about the Council’s failure to provide alternative provision. There is inadequate evidence of fault to warrant investigation

The complaint

1. Miss X, says the Council has failed to provide suitable alternative provision for her child, Y while she has been 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 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 (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

5. Miss X deregistered Y from School Z in 2024 due to temporary relocation to a different area. Miss X says she was advised to register Y at a school in the new area but did not do this.
6. Miss X says Y was unable to attend school due to anxiety and was not on any school roll.
7. Miss X says she moved back into the Council’s area in November 2024 and asked it to provide Y with alternative provision under section 19 of the Education Act 1996. She says Y was offered a place back at School Z with support from professionals. Miss X says Y could not attend.
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. (Education Act 1996, section 19). We refer to this as section 19 or alternative education provision.
9. The Council told Miss X it had not seen any evidence to show Y could not attend school. It said its section 19 duty did not apply. Further it had tried to contact Miss X to place Y back on a School Z’s roll but she had not replied.
10. The Ombudsman is not an appeal body. This means we do not take a second look at a decision to decide if it was wrong. Instead, we look at the processes an organisation followed to make its decision. If we consider it followed those processes correctly, we cannot question whether the decision was right or wrong, regardless of whether a complainant disagrees with the organisation’s decision.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because we are unlikely to find sufficient fault to warrant an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman