Summary: We cannot investigate this complaint about incidents which occurred at the Complainant’s child’s school. This is because the law says we cannot consider what happens in schools.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Ms X, complains about actions of senior staff members at her child’s school. She says she has safeguarding concerns and is unhappy with how the school has handled her complaint. Ms X says she did not consent to therapy sessions taking place in school for her child and is unhappy a session took place without her consent.
2. Ms X is also unhappy about the way the Council responded to her complaint about the school.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
4. We cannot investigate most complaints about what happens in schools. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5, paragraph 5(2), as amended)
5. 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, or we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
7. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

8. Ms X’s child has an Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan. Ms X says incidents in school caused her to have safeguarding concerns. Her concerns relate to the actions of senior staff at the school. Her child is not currently attending.
9. The law says matters which take place in a school do not fall to be investigated by the Ombudsman. We cannot therefore investigate this part of the complaint. The law prevents us from doing so.
10. Therapy is specified in section F of the child’s EHC Plan. Ms X complains her child has taken part in a therapy session for which she did not give her consent. In its response to Ms X’s complaint, the Council has explained the reason for the session and agreed no more therapy will take place due to Ms X withdrawing her consent. We will not pursue this aspect of the complaint as there is not enough evidence of fault on the Council’s part and an investigation would not lead to a different outcome.
11. Ms X complains about how the Council handled her complaint. It is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures, if we are unable to deal with the substantive issue. That is the case here.

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Final decision

12. We cannot investigate Ms X’s complaint because it is about events that happened in school. We will not investigate part of the complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault and an investigation would not lead to a different outcome.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman