Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council (21 013 634)
Category : Education > School exclusions
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 26 Jan 2022
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint that the Independent Review Panel held following his son’s exclusion from school was procedurally flawed. That is because the Council was acting on behalf of an academy school and we have no jurisdiction to consider complaints about academies.
The complaint
- Mr X complained the Independent Review Panel held after his son Y, was permanently excluded from school was procedurally flawed. He said Y’s school shared information with the Special Educational Needs (SEN) Expert before the Independent Review Panel, but that information was not shared at the Panel, or with the parents. He also said information provided by Y’s school was inaccurate.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
- We investigate complaints about councils and certain other bodies. We cannot investigate the actions of bodies such as school academies. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 25 and 34A, as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- After Y was permanently excluded from school, Mr X appealed the school’s decision through its governing board’s disciplinary committee. The committee upheld the exclusion. Mr X asked for an Independent Review Panel to review that decision. He asked for an SEN Expert to attend. The Independent Review Panel upheld the exclusion.
- As Y’s school is an academy school it is not maintained by the Council. When the Council arranged the Independent Review Panel it did that on behalf of the academy school. We cannot investigate the actions of an academy, therefore this complaint is outside of our jurisdiction and we cannot investigate it. The Education and Skills Funding Agency considers complaints about exclusions from academies.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it is outside of the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman