Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about school admissions. Mr X’s complaint flows from an application for a place at an academy school. We have no powers to consider complaints about admission to academy schools.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained an unlawful admissions policy by a local school and the Council’s actions meant his son was refused a place at his preferred school. Mr X says this meant he was forced to appeal which caused stress and led to avoidable costs. Mr X’s appeal was successful. Mr X wants his costs refunding and is unhappy with the Council’s handling of his complaint.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. 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)
4. We cannot investigate a complaint if someone has appealed to a tribunal about the same matter. We also cannot investigate a complaint if in doing so we would overlap with the role of a tribunal to decide something which has been or could have been referred to it to resolve using its own powers. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)
5. The courts have said we can decide not to investigate a complaint about any action by an organisation concerning a matter which the law says we cannot investigate. (R (on the application of M) v Commissioner for Local Administration [2006] EHWCC 2847 (Admin))
6. 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:

• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants, or
• there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

7. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
8. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

9. We will not start an investigation into Mr X’s complaint. This is because it flows from Mr X’s application for a place at an academy. We have no powers to consider complaints about admission to academies.
10. Also, when the Council refused Mr X’s application on behalf of the school, he used his right of appeal. School admission appeal panels are statutory tribunals. When a parent has appealed to a tribunal, we have no powers to consider the matter appealed or anything directly linked. So, as well as the exclusion explained in paragraph 9, Mr X’s appeal places any involvement the Council had in the process outside out jurisdiction with no discretion.
11. Mr X is unhappy with the Council’s handling of his complaint. But it is not a good use of our resources to look at complaint handling as a standalone issue. The law is clear that we can decide not to investigate a complaint about a council’s actions if it relates to something which is outside our jurisdiction. In this case, even if we were to investigate the Council’s complaint handling, we could not achieve any worthwhile outcome. Mr X’s appeal was successful and any costs he incurred are not something we can consider as the appeal itself is outside our jurisdiction. The school has also amended its admission arrangements for 2026. These will apply when Mr X applies for a place for his younger child. This is the outcome Mr X wanted but is again outside our jurisdiction. Our involvement could not achieve anything more and we will not therefore investigate.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it relates to admission to an academy school and is therefore outside our jurisdiction.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman