Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about a school admissions’ application appeal. It is unlikely we would find fault.

The complaint

1. Mrs X says the Council’s school admissions appeals panel was wrong to refuse her appeal for a place for her child, Y at School Z.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word fault to refer to these. We consider whether there was fault in the way a school admissions appeals panel made its decision. If there was no fault in how the panel made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by Mrs X which included the appeal panel’s decision letter.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

The appeals’ process

5. Statutory guidance about school admissions and appeals can be found in The School Admissions Code and School Admission Appeals Code. Both are published by the Department for Education. 
6. Parents/carers have the right to appeal an admission authority’s decision not to offer their child a school place.  
7. Appeal hearings must be held in private and conducted in the presence of all panel members and parties. Appeal panels must act according to the principles of natural justice. 
8. A clerk supports the appeal panel. Parents can submit information in support of their appeal.
9. The admission authority must provide a presenting officer at the hearing to explain the decision not to admit the child and to answer questions from the appellant and panel. 
10. Appeal panels must allow appellants the opportunity to make oral representations.
11. Appeal panels must either uphold or dismiss an appeal and must not uphold an appeal subject to any conditions. Appeals must be decided by a simple majority of votes cast. A panel’s decision that a child shall be admitted to a school is binding on the admission authority concerned. 
12. The clerk to the panel must write to the appellant, the admission authority and the council with the panel’s decision and reasons. 

The events in this case

13. Mrs X applied for a place for Y in School Z in year three as their sibling had a place at the school and other siblings were due to attend there. The school year was full and the application refused. Mrs X appealed. The Council arranged an appeal panel which heard and decided the case in November 2024. It refused the appeal.
14. Mrs X says School Z’s head teacher did not get the opportunity to state their views. They say the decision was not based on the full factual situation.

Analysis

15. The school’s admissions authority, in this case the Council, provides a representative to set out the case to the appeal panel. The head teacher is not expected to provide separate evidence. We are unlikely to find fault in the head teacher not providing their individual views.
16. The appeal panel’s decision letter sets out the information it had and this covers the main points Mrs X says her appeal was based on.

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Final decision

17. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because we are unlikely to find fault which has caused her to lose out on a school place.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman