Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about the Council’s school’s admissions appeal panel refusing her appeal. It is unlikely we would find fault which caused X to lose out on a school place.

The complaint

1. Miss X says the Council’s school’s admissions appeals panel should have granted her child, D, a place at School Y.

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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 Miss X and the appeal papers.
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 give 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. 
13. Panels must follow a two-stage decision making process. 
14. Stage 1: the panel examines the decision to refuse admission. The panel must consider whether: 
• the admissions arrangements complied with the mandatory requirements set out in the School Admissions Code; 
• the admission arrangements were applied correctly; and if 
• the admission of additional children would prejudice the provision of efficient education or the efficient use of resources.  
15. If a panel decides that admitting further children would “prejudice the provision of efficient education or the efficient use of resources” they move to the second stage of the process. 
16. Stage 2: balancing the arguments. The panel must balance the prejudice to the school against the appellant’s case for the child to be admitted.  

Events in this case

17. Miss X applied for a place for her child, D, to start at School Y in year seven from September 2025. There were more applicants than places. Miss X missed out on distance.
18. Miss X appealed the Council’s decision to refuse a place. She told the appeal panel, in summary:
• D has social anxiety and needed to be with their friends who were to attend School Y.
• They did not like the allocated school and did not believe it met D’s needs.
• They believed the allocated school was more than three miles from their home and the could not afford the travel cost. Whereas School Y is a 20 minute walk which D could do with friends.
• D would not travel alone.
• She saved an elder sibling’s uniform to use for D and could not afford one for a different school.
19. The appeal panel dismissed the appeal. It decided the prejudice to School Y of admitting D outweighed the reasons why Miss X wanted a place for D.
20. Miss X disagrees with this decision. She says:
• There was unspecified fault in the appeal
• The Council has not disclosed information to the appeal panel about the toilets at School Y.
• There were unspecified data handling issues.

Analysis

21. The Ombudsman is not an appeal body. This means we do not take a second look at a decision to decide if it was wrong. Instead, we look at the processes an organisation followed to make its decision. If we consider it followed those processes correctly, we cannot question whether the decision was right or wrong, regardless of whether you disagree with the appeal panel’s decision.
22. It is clear from the appeal panel’s detailed decision letter the appeal panel actively considered the case before making its decision, including Ds health issues. It is unlikely we would find fault in the appeal panel’s decision based on the information I have seen which supports its decision. It is a decision it was entitled to take.

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Final decision

23. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because it is unlikely we would find fault in the appeal panel’s decision which has caused her to lose out on a place at School Y.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman