East Sussex County Council (25 020 277)
Category : Education > School admissions
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 02 Mar 2026
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of a school admissions appeal. There is not enough evidence of fault by the Council for us to be able to question its actions.
The complaint
- The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Ms X, complained about the Council’s handling of a school admissions appeal. Ms X says the Council failed to notify her of the hearing which went ahead without her present. Ms X wants the Council to arrange a further hearing.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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.(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- In response to our enquiries the Council provided copies of emails it sent to Ms X about her appeal. These included an acknowledgement dated 28 October and an email dated 06 November saying papers for the appeal were available. The Council sent us an email to Ms X dated 20 November which said her appeal was scheduled for the following day.
- Ms X says she did not receive the above emails and did not log into her account to view the documents the emails related to. But our role is to look for fault by the Council. The evidence I have seen shows the Council advised Ms X of the appeal and sent her the papers. Ms X says she did not receive the messages, but I note the email address on the Council’s messages match the one Ms X provided the Ombudsman. While not doubting Ms X’s claims, based on the evidence available, there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council to warrant our involvement.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman