Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council dealt with Mr X’s applications for school places. It is reasonable for Mr X to appeal to an independent panel and the Council has yet to decide his request that his daughter be educated out of year group.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mr X, complained about the way the Council dealt with his application for a year 7 place. The Council refused Mr X’s application for a place at his preferred schools and offered an alternative. Mr X is unhappy with the place the Council has offered. He has now asked the Council to educate his child out of year group and to offer a place in a junior school.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone can appeal to a tribunal. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to appeal. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)
3. Education appeal panels are set up under the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 to hear appeals against school admission and exclusion decisions. Education appeal panels are statutory tribunals. The Ombudsman normally considers it reasonable for a person aggrieved about an admission or exclusion decision to exercise their right of appeal to a panel.

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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What I found

Background

6. In July 2021, Mr X applied for school places for his children, Y and Z, who were moving to the country from overseas. The Council offered Y a place in a junior school. But because there were no year 7 places in Mr X’s preferred school for Z, the Council refused his application. Mr X then asked the Council if Z, as a summer born child, could join Y in her junior school. Mr X has also now applied for an alternative year 7 place for Z.
7. Mr X has complained to the Council because he is unhappy with the process of applying for a place when a child is moving from overseas. Mr X is also unhappy with the appeals process as a way of challenging the Council’s decision.

Assessment

8. We will not start an investigation into Mr X’s complaint. This is because Mr X has the right to appeal the Council’s decision not to offer a year 7 place at his preferred school(s) to an independent panel. This is the process the law allows for parents to challenge such decisions. The panel can consider how the Council dealt with Mr X’s application and if the Council’s admission arrangements are lawful and if they were properly applied. The panel can decide if there was any fault by the Council and if it affected the decision not to offer a place. Even if the panel does not find any fault with the way the Council acted, it can still offer Mr X’s child a place. This is not a decision the Ombudsman can take and so it is reasonable for Mr X to use the appeal rights available to him.
9. Mr X’s daughter (Z) is a summer born child. The School Admissions Code explains that parents or guardians of a summer born child (that is one born between 1 April and 31 August) have the option not to send their son or daughter to school until the September following their fifth birthday – a year after the point at which they could first have been admitted.
10. Although parents or guardians can decide not to send their child to school until they reach compulsory school age, they cannot insist their child is admitted to a particular year group. The School Admissions Code (para 2.19) deals with how such requests should be considered.
11. This particular provision does not apply to Z because Mr X is not applying for a Reception place. But the School Admissions Code does allow parents to ask that children in other year groups are educated out of year group. The School Admissions Code says “admission authorities must make decisions on the basis of the circumstances of each case and in the best interests of the child concerned." Admission authorities must take into account a variety of information, including the views of the school’s headteacher.
12. The Council says Mr X’s preferred junior school is considering his request that Z be educated out of year group. If this remained Mr X’s preferred outcome and he was unhappy with the eventual decision, then he could make a fresh complaint to the Council, and then the Ombudsman. But we will not investigate this point at the current time.

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Final decision

13. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint. This is because is reasonable for Mr X to appeal to an independent panel and the Council has yet to decide his request that his daughter be educated out of year group.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman