Summary

Complaint from a woman that the council failed to properly manage the waiting list for a school. This wrongly resulted in a vacant place being offered to child who was twelfth on the waiting list.

The complaint

Complaint from a woman that the council failed to properly manage the waiting list for a school. This wrongly resulted in a vacant place being offered to child who was twelfth on the waiting list.

The council failed to take action to correct the school's error or to put right the injustice caused to children higher on the waiting list.

Finding

The Ombudsman upheld the complaint and found fault causing injustice.

Recommendations

To remedy the injustice caused, we recommend the council:

• take action to improve resources in the school concerned so that it can lawfully take the child at the top of the waiting list into the relevant year group;
• apologise to the women and pay her £500 to recognise the outrage and unnecessary time and trouble she was caused by an appeal that had no real chance of success, and by pursuing this complaint; and
• consider what steps can be taken to ensure proper procedures are in place and are followed in the future, including writing to all schools in its area to reiterate the proper process for filling places from the waiting list when vacancies arise.

Ombudsman satisfied with the Council's response: 5 January 2015

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