Summary: A parent complained that the Council had been unable to find his son a school place because all the schools in the area were full. But we will not investigate this matter because the parent has now accepted an offer of a place for his son at a local school.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I shall call Mr B, complained about the Council’s inability to find a secondary school place for his son (‘C’), which had left him without education. Mr B was also unhappy there were no available places at any of the schools in the Borough, and he felt the Council was at fault because of poor forward planning in this respect.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start an investigation if, for example, we decide:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or
• there is another body better placed to consider the complaint. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered the information Mr B provided with his complaint and his comments when we spoke on the telephone. I also took account of the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

4. Mr B’s family recently moved into the Council’s area. On 1 November 2022 Mr B applied to the Council for a secondary school place for C.
5. In December C was offered a place at a school (‘School A’) around three miles from the family home. But Mr B turned down the offer because of the difficulty he and his wife would face in transporting C and his sibling to and from different schools some distance apart.
6. Mr B said that following this offer the Council did not provide any further help in finding a school place for C. However in February 2023 another place at School A became available. This time Mr B accepted the offer and C is due to start at School A soon.
7. Local authorities have a legal duty to arrange for the provision of suitable education for children out of school who would remain without education unless those arrangements are made. But parents are also ultimately under a legal duty themselves to ensure their children receive a suitable full-time education.
8. Having considered matters I am not convinced there is evidence of fault by the Council in Mr B’s case.
9. In particular, as C was offered a place at School A in the month after Mr B’s application, I consider the Council’s duty was fulfilled within a relatively short time, even though Mr B chose to turn down the offer.
10. In addition Mr B has now accepted a place for C at School A. In the circumstances it appears reasonable to suggest C could have been in school sooner if Mr B had accepted the initial offer there.
11. But even if we were to find there was some fault by the Council because it did not take sufficient action to secure a school place for C, I still do not see we could justify carrying out an investigation into this matter. In particular I do not see that an investigation could achieve a better or different outcome for Mr B now that C has a school place.
12. Mr B was also unhappy about the absence of available places at any of the secondary schools in the Council’s area, and he put this down to poor planning on the Council’s part.
13. Local authorities have a legal duty to secure that there are sufficient schools in their area. But we do not have a remit or the resources to conduct a general investigation into the sufficiency of schools or school places in the Council’s area.
14. It also appears Mr B can pursue this issue with other bodies which are better placed to address his concerns, for instance, his locally elected representatives and the relevant central government department.

Final decision

15. We do not have reason to start an investigation of Mr B’s complaint about a lack of help from the Council in finding a school place for his son. This is mainly because Mr B’s son has now been offered a suitable school place, and we could not achieve a better outcome than that.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman