Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about school admissions. We cannot consider complaints about school admission appeals for academies, and there is not enough evidence of fault in the Council’s decision to allocate the school.

The complaint

1. Miss X complained the Council arranged an unsuitable school placement for her child, Z, during a mid-term transfer.
2. Miss X said the Council did not properly consider X’s needs, and the school was too far away.
3. Miss X also said that Z cannot use public transport, so she is taking time off from work to transport them to and from school. Miss X said this caused financial strain, and distress to Z.
4. Miss X wants the Council to allocate Z a place at one of three schools within walking distance.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

5. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
6. We cannot investigate complaints about actions which are not the administrative function of a council. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(1) as amended).
7. 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 not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

8. I considered information provided by Miss X.
9. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

10. Miss X wanted Z to be allocated a place at one of three schools within walking distance of their new home. All three are academies.
11. Miss X pursued an unsuccessful appeal after the three schools did not offer Z a placement.
12. We cannot investigate this part of Miss X’s complaint. Complaints about school admissions for academies are outside our jurisdiction as they are not an administrative function of the Council.
13. In its complaint response to Miss X, the Council said that it had allocated a school place to Z that was the nearest to their home that had space. It also told Miss X it could not influence admissions for the three schools that she preferred as they were academies and gave her the process to pursue her concern about Z’s journey to school.
14. We will not investigate this part of Miss X’s complaint. There is not enough evidence of fault in the Council’s decision making, and we cannot achieve the outcome that Miss X wants because school admissions for academies are outside our jurisdiction.

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Final decision

15. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because we cannot consider complaints about school admissions for academies, and there is not enough evidence of fault in the council’s decision to allocate the school.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman