Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s allocation for a primary school place for Miss X’s child starting school in September 2025. The Council is not the admissions authority for the school, which is an academy. Miss X has or had a right to appeal to the academy trust against its refusal of a place. There is not enough evidence of fault by the Council to warrant investigation, because its role was only to administer the allocation of school places. When a parent declines the offer of a school place, that does not create a Council duty to offer alternative educational provision.

The complaint

1. Miss X said the Council failed to consider her child’s school place application under the exceptional social and medical criterion named in the School Admissions Code. She said it ignored her refusal of the place it offered and her contacts, and failed to offer alternative educational provision.

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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))

3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
4. We cannot investigate complaints about actions which are not the administrative function of a council. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(1) as amended).
5. 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

6. I considered information provided by the complainant.
7. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

8. The Council is not the admission authority for the school Miss X wanted her child to attend. This school is an academy and controls its own admissions. The Council can only require the school to accept a child if they have an Education Health and Care (EHC) Plan naming the school. Miss X’s child did not have an EHC Plan naming the school. However, Miss X has or had a right to appeal to the academy trust against the refusal of a place. It would be or have been reasonable to use this right.
9. The Council’s role in school admissions is limited to administering the main admissions round. As no school Miss X named had places available, and none used the category she referred to, which is also not mandatory, the Council allocated a place at the nearest school to the family home with places available. Were we to investigate, it is unlikely we would find the Council acted with fault by doing this.
10. Having offered a school place, the Council had no further duty to offer alternative educational provision simply because a parent declined the place. Any alternative educational provision duty in other circumstances also only applies to children of compulsory school age. Miss X’s child will not reach compulsory school age until September 2026.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council to warrant our further involvement.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman