Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about how the Council made enquiries about his child’s education. There is not enough evidence of fault by the Council to warrant an investigation.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Mr X, complained about the Council’s actions after he withdrew his child (Y) from school to home educate them. Mr X says the Council made unreasonable demands for information and threatened legal action.

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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 complainant and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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What I found

Legislation

5. Parents have a right to educate their children at home (Section 7, Education Act 1996). The term elective home education is used when a parent chooses to provide education for their children at home, instead of sending them to school full-time. There are no specific legal requirements for the content of home education, but it can include the use of tutors or parental support groups.
6. Councils have a duty to make arrangements to enable them to identify children in their area of compulsory school age who are not registered pupils at a school (including academies and free schools) and are not receiving suitable education otherwise (S436A, Education Act 1996).
7. Councils do not regulate home education. However, the law requires councils to enquire about what education is being provided when a child is not attending school full-time.
8. Councils can ask parents for detailed information about the education they are providing, though parents are under no duty to respond to such informal enquiries. Guidance says that where a parent does not provide such information, it will normally be justifiable for the council to decide the child is not receiving suitable education and it should take further action. Councils can ask to see a child either at home or in another location, but parents are not obliged to agree to this.
9. If a parent refuses to provide information and there are still concerns that a child is not being suitably educated, the council must take action. It can serve a notice in writing on the parents requiring them to satisfy the council the child is receiving suitable education. 
10. If parents do not respond to the notice (or the response does not satisfy the council the education is suitable) and the council’s view is the child should attend school, the council should serve a school attendance order (s437(3) Education Act 1996). 

Assessment

11. In its final response to Mr X the Council acknowledged his concerns and the challenges faced by Y. It said its Children Missing Education team has a duty to make enquiries when a child’s education is not clearly established. It said the information provided by Mr X was helpful and encouraged Mr X to share further details.
12. While I understand Mr X’s frustrations, we will not start an investigation into his complaint.
13. The Council has a duty to identify children not receiving a suitable full-time education. The law allows councils to enquire about the education being provided to children who are not attending school. In this case, the Council asked for information from Mr X about Y’s education. It did not set a timescale for responding we would criticise. The Council said it did not require access to Mr X’s home unless invited, nor did it require a ‘virtual meeting’. The Council did say that if it did not receive the information requested it would need to record Y as missing education and consider further steps such as a School Attendance Order. The law allows the Council to do this.
14. Our role is not to ask whether an organisation could have done things better, or whether we agree or disagree with what it did. Instead, we look at whether there was fault in how it made its decisions. If we decide there was no fault in how it did so, we cannot ask whether it should have made a particular decision or say it should have reached a different outcome. Based on the information available there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council to warrant us investigating.

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Final decision

15. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman