Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the arrangements for the delivery of education at a school. This is because there is no evidence of fault causing the complainant an injustice.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I will refer to as Mr X, complains that the Council has ceased making on site educational provision at a school and has blocked his children from returning to the school, after forcing them to leave in 2020.

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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 may decide not to start an investigation if 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 and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Mr X says that in 2020 the Council withdrew provision for education for certain year groups at his children’s school. He says he was therefore compelled to enrol his children at an alternative school.
6. In 2021 Mr X made a complaint to the Ombudsman about the Council’s efforts to close the school. We declined to investigate it and will not reconsider the matters raised in the complaint now. Given that Mr X says the Council’s efforts to close the school have failed, there are no grounds for us to consider matters relating to the process.
7. Mr X says the Council has not closed the school or changed its age range, but it has refused his request to readmit his children. He further complains that the Council has decided it will not make on site provision from January 2023 for the children on the school roll.
8. The Ombudsman will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence that the Council’s actions have caused him a demonstrable injustice. The evidence does not support his assertion that the Council has refused his children readmission to the school. Rather, the correspondence he has provided shows that the Council says the children would be “very welcome at the school”. The Council’s letter goes on to say that the children on roll will not be educated on site, but it will make other provision for the children in consultation with their parents and carers.
9. The Council is obliged to secure suitable education of children in its area. It is not obliged to secure it at a particular location. It is for Mr X to decide whether off site education at the school is in his children’s interests. As I understand it, he has not taken this option. The offer of it does not itself cause him an injustice.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is no evidence of fault on the Council’s part causing him an injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman