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

The complaint

1. Mrs 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 Mrs 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. Mrs X applied for a place for her child, D, for year eight in School Y. She said D had been bullied at their current school, Z. The school year is full and therefore the Council refused to allocate D a place. Mrs X appealed to the Schools Admissions Appeals Panel (the Panel).
18. Mrs X told the Panel, in summary:
• D has been bullied at School Z.
• D had friends at School Y.
19. The Panel dismissed the appeal. It decided the prejudice to School Y of admitting D outweighed the reasons Mrs X wanted a place for D. In particular it noted there was another school with places available within the statutory walking distance of their home. And Mrs X had not formally complained to School Y about the bullying.
20. Mrs X disagrees with this decision. She believes the Panel did not follow the correct notice period. She believes the Panel did not properly consider the evidence before it.

Analysis

21. The School Admissions Appeal Code says the Council must notify parents more than ten school days before the Panel is held. It did that. It then sent her the papers seven days before the appeal. We are unlikely we would find fault in the notice period or the service of papers.
22. 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 Mrs X disagrees with the Panel’s decision.
23. The Panel has to decide what School Y can offer the current school or others could not. It is clear from the Panel’s detailed decision letter the Panel actively considered the case before making its decision. It is unlikely we would find fault in the 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

24. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because it is unlikely we would find fault in the 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