Summary: We cannot investigate this complaint about the conduct of a review panel that considered the permanent exclusion of Mrs X’s child from a school. This is because the school is an academy and we have no legal power to investigate the conduct of review panels for academy school.

The complaint

1. Mrs X says the Council representative who attended her child’s permanent exclusion hearing had a conflict of interest.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. We cannot investigate most complaints about what happens in schools. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5, paragraph 5(2), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by the complainant. And the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. The school from which Mrs X’s child was permanently excluded is an academy school. Unlike community schools and certain other types of school, academy schools are run by academy trusts or multi-academy trusts. We have no legal power to investigate their actions. That means that, unlike complaints about permanent exclusions from schools that are not academies, we cannot consider the conduct of the review panel. That is the case even though a local council provides the review panel service to academy schools in the same way as it does to other schools.

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Final decision

6. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because we cannot investigate the conduct of a review panel for a permanent school exclusion where the school is an academy.
   Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman