Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s decision to change the term dates for the next academic year, and the decision by his children’s school to adopt a two-week half-term break because of the Council’s decision. This is because an investigation by us would not achieve anything worthwhile. We cannot investigate the school’s decision itself because the actions of an academy are outside our jurisdiction.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about the Council’s decision to change the term dates for the 2026 to 2027 academic year.
2. He complains the academy his children attend adopted a two-week half-term break for October 2026 following the Council’s decision. Mr X said this means he must pay for extra childcare or take more time off from work.
3. Mr X also complains about the Council’s complaint handling. He said it failed to issue a stage one response, and he complains about the way the Council investigated his stage two complaint.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. 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 no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
5. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
6. We investigate complaints about councils and certain other bodies. We cannot investigate the actions of bodies such as Academies and Free Schools. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 25 and 34(1), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

7. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
8. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

9. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s decision to change the term dates for the next school year. The changes made by the Council do not apply to an academy school.
10. Mr X’s children attend an academy school and therefore an investigation by us would not achieve anything worthwhile.
11. Academies are free to choose their own term dates and Mr X’s complaint stems from the school’s decision to adopt the two-week half-term following the Council’s changes.
12. However, we cannot investigate the academy’s decision because the actions of an academy are outside our jurisdiction.
13. The Department for Education’s guidance on complaints about academies says an academy must have a written complaints procedure that tells you how you can make a complaint and how the academy will handle it.
14. It is open to Mr X to complain directly to the academy. He can then escalate his complaint to the Department of Education if he remains dissatisfied.
15. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s complaint handling. It is not a good use of our limited public resources to investigate complaints about the Council’s complaint handling if we are not investigating any substantive issues at the same time.

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Final decision

16. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because an investigation will not achieve anything worthwhile, and the decisions of an academy school are outside our jurisdiction. We will not investigate the Council’s complaint handling alone as this would not be a good use of our resources.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman