Summary: We will not investigate this complaint that the Council failed to ensure that the complainant’s daughter was kept safe by her school, and that it produced a flawed report on safeguarding procedures at the school. This is because the complaint primarily concerns the actions of a school and, as such, the law prevents the Ombudsman from considering it.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mrs X, complains that the Council failed to ensure that her daughter was kept safe by her school, and that it produced a flawed report on safeguarding procedures at the school.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
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 the complainant and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Mrs X says her daughter was subject to abusive behaviour from another pupil while at school. She complains that the school failed to act to keep her daughter safe, and failed to inform her and the police of physical assaults her daughter suffered. She says her daughter was forced to change school as a result, but is not currently attending.
7. Mrs X wants the Council to make the school apologise for its failings and to ensure that the school makes itself a safe environment so her daughter can return.
8. As a result of an anonymous complaint to the Office for Standards in Education, the Council carried out an enquiry into safeguarding procedures at the school. The findings of the enquiry were set out in a report, which concluded that the school had appropriate policies and processes in place and that no further action was required. Mrs X believes these findings are flawed and points out that she was not spoken to in the course of the enquiry.
9. The Ombudsman cannot investigate Mrs X’s complaint because it relates primarily to the actions of a school. Such matters fall outside the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction by law. Mrs X’s recourse was to complain using the school’s own complaints procedure, and she has done so. There is no role for the Ombudsman.
10. The Council has provided the Ombudsman with a copy of the report it produced following the enquiry into safeguarding procedures at the school. The methodology of the enquiry appears to have been appropriate, and the findings are proportionate and defensible. That being the case, it is not for the Ombudsman to criticise the findings or intervene to substitute an alternative view.

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Final decision

11. We cannot investigate Mrs X’s complaint because it primarily concerns the actions of a school.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman