Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about how the Council decided not to appoint him to the school admissions appeals panel. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault to justify an investigation by the Ombudsman.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council wrongly refused to appoint him to the school admissions appeal panel.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Mr X complained to the Council about how it decided it would not appoint him to the school admissions appeals panel. The Council said it was acting in line with its legal duty which disqualifies anyone who has a connection with the Council which raises doubts about their ability to act impartially.
6. The Council considered Mr X’s expression of interest and explained it would not appoint him to the panel because it considered he could compromise the Council’s legal duties to act fairly and impartially. It explained it had treated Mr X as vexatious on several occasions, he had made multiple unsubstantiated allegations, and he could not accept Council decisions. It provided examples of these behaviours.
7. I will not investigate this complaint. 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 Mr X disagrees.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault in the Council’s actions to justify an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman