Cheshire East Council (24 010 732)
Category : Education > School admissions
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 22 Sep 2024
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s response to concerns about a school’s admission arrangements. This is because the school is academy. We have no powers to consider complaints about academy schools and there is no worthwhile outcome from considering the Council’s complaint response.
The complaint
- The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Mrs X, complained to the Council about a school’s admission arrangements. The school is an academy. Mrs X is unhappy with what she describes as a lack of support from the Council.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
- We investigate complaints about councils and certain other bodies. We cannot investigate the actions of bodies such as Academies and Free Schools. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 25 and 34(1), as amended)
- The courts have said we can decide not to investigate a complaint about any action by a council concerning a matter which is outside our jurisdiction. (R (on the application of M) v Commissioner for Local Administration [2006] EHWCC 2847 (Admin))
- We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint. We have no powers to consider complaints about academy schools. An investigation of the Council’s response would not achieve a worthwhile outcome. This is because the academy is responsible for setting its admission arrangements.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman