North Yorkshire County Council (21 005 680)

Category : Education > School admissions

Decision : Closed after initial enquiries

Decision date : 03 Aug 2021

The Ombudsman's final decision:

Summary: We cannot investigate this complaint from a parent about the school admission appeal panel’s decision to turn down her appeal for a place for her child at an academy school. This is because the complaint does not meet the tests in our Assessment Code on how we decide which complaints to investigate. The law prevents us from considering complaints about academies. The Council’s actions in response to the complaint about its admissions team also cannot be investigated as its actions were on behalf of the academy.

The complaint

  1. Mrs X says her application and appeal for her child’s admission for an academy school were not considered properly under medical grounds. She also says the Council’s schools’ admissions team did not advise them currently. She would like her application for the academy school to be reconsidered.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

  1. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
  2. We cannot investigate complaints about what happens in schools. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5, paragraph 5(b), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

  1. I have considered the information provided by Mrs X which includes the Council’s responses. I also considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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Final decision

  1. I will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint as the school in question is an academy which lies outside of our jurisdiction. Furthermore, the Council’s admissions team was acting on behalf of the school, which is its own admissions authority, so I also cannot investigate the Council’s actions.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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