London Borough of Tower Hamlets (19 002 101)
Category : Education > School admissions
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 12 Jul 2019
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint about the refusal to allocate a place for the complainant’s son in one of the Council’s schools. This is because there is no fault in the actions of the Council.
The complaint
- The complainant, who I refer to here as Miss O, says that her son is out of school with no alternative provision. She lives on the border of the Council’s area, but it has refused to accept her applications for schools or to allow her to appeal.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe it is unlikely we would find fault. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered the information provided by Miss O and by the Council. I have also sent Miss O a draft decision for her comments.
What I found
- Miss O’s son was permanently excluded from a school in the Council’s area. As the family lives in Hackney, provision for his education therefore became the responsibility of the London Borough of Hackney.
- Hackney placed Miss O’s son in a Pupil Referral Unit.
- In October 2018 Miss O asked the Council to place him back in one of its schools, but the Council refused. It explained that as her son had been permanently excluded, any request for placement had to come through his home Council, in order to ensure that he was appropriately placed with adequate support. It gave Miss O details of how to contact the Hackney Learning Trust.
- The Council says the matter was not treated as a complaint as is it not something that the complaints procedure can deal with.
- Miss O has complained to the Ombudsman, but we will not investigate the complaint, as there is no fault in the Council’s actions.
Final decision
- Subject to any comments Miss O might make, my view is that the Ombudsman should not investigate this complaint. This is because there is no fault in the Council’s action.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman