Buckinghamshire Council (20 007 155)
Category : Education > School admissions
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 02 Dec 2020
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about 11 + examination organisation. Mrs X appealed the decision not to award a grammar school place to the Tribunal which remedied the significant injustice.
The complaint
- The complainant, whom I shall call Mrs X, says the Council failed to ensure her child’s reasonable adjustments were met for an 11+ examination.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- We cannot investigate a complaint if someone has appealed to a tribunal. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered the information Mrs X provided with her complaint which included the Council’s replies. I considered the comments Mrs X’s representative made on her behalf on a draft version of this decision.
What I found
- Mrs X’s child, B, has an Education Health and Care Plan (EHC Plan) due to sight limits. In June 2019, she applied for B to sit the 11+ examination and sought reasonable adjustments to meet B’s sight needs. She says these were not met. She says the Council manages the 11+ examinations on the schools’ behalf.
- B did not achieve the score needed to get a place at grammar School Y, an academy. Mrs X appealed the 11+ mark to the Council’s Selection Review Panel. It considered her appeal in February 2020. B still did not get a place at School Y.
- Mrs X appealed the school named in B’s EHC Plan to the Tribunal SEND. It agreed to name grammar School Z in B’s EHC Plan.
Analysis
- The Tribunal considered and decided the suitable school for B. We cannot investigate which school is most suitable to meet B’s needs as we cannot investigate the same issue as the Tribunal. Why B did not achieve the required mark is not separable from the Tribunal’s consideration and decision.
- The Tribunal’s decision has remedied the main injustice caused by any faults in the 11+ process. We cannot decide there was any illegal discrimination in any failure to meet reasonable adjustments.
Final decision
- The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because Mrs X has used a remedy for the problems by appealing to the Tribunal.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman