Complaints about education outside of a school setting
This fact sheet is aimed at parents who are experiencing problems with accessing education for a child who is unable to attend their usual school. It is also aimed at parents who choose to educate their children outside of the state education system.
I believe my child is unable to attend school and I am not happy with the support provided by the Council. Can the Ombudsman help me?
Parents have a legal duty to ensure their children receive a suitable, full-time education. Most do this by sending their children to school. Councils have a range of legal powers if a child is missing education without good reason, including prosecution in the courts in the most serious cases.
There will be times where children are unable to attend school on a short-term basis. This might be because of brief illness, or an unexpected personal matter. Short-term absences will be managed by schools, and there is no requirement for them to provide any supplementary education for the days a child has missed.
Councils must arrange alternative education when it finds that a child is unable to access school for an extended time, either because of permanent exclusion, illness, or for other reasons which make the school inaccessible to the child. The complaints we receive often relate to situations where parents believe their child is unable to access school due to medical or other reasons, such as anxiety or school phobias.
When a council finds it has a duty to arrange alternative education, it must provide an education that is suitable for the child’s age and ability. It should mirror a full-time education as far as possible, although it can tailor the number of hours where it is in the child’s interest to do so. If a child has an Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan, then the council also needs to ensure it is arranging the additional support guaranteed by the Plan wherever possible.
I want to educate my child at home, but the council says I can’t. Can the Ombudsman help me?
Parents are responsible for ensuring their children receive a suitable education. If a council decides there is no medical or other reasons to prevent your child from attending their assigned school, it might take legal action for non-attendance.
The law does not currently allow the Ombudsman to become involved in internal school matters. So, if you are not satisfied with things at your child’s school and you decide to remove your child from that school and educate him or her at home, we would not be able to look at any difficulties you had with the school.
If you decide to home educate your child then you become responsible for ensuring they receive a suitable education. This is referred to as ‘elective home education’. If a council considers that a child is not receiving appropriate education it can serve a notice on parents to improve the standard of education they are providing. It can also take legal action against parents and could serve a School Attendance Order. The Ombudsman cannot look at what goes on in court.
How do I complain?
You should normally complain to the council first. Councils often have more than one stage in their complaints procedure and you will usually have to complete all stages before we will look at your complaint. We may consider accepting a complaint before the council’s own procedures are exhausted but only if exceptional circumstances apply.
Then, if you are unhappy with the outcome, or the council is taking too long to look into the matter – we think 16 weeks is reasonable – you can complain to us.
Usually, you should complain to us within 16 months of when you first knew about the problem. If you leave it any later, we may not be able to help.
If you can consider my complaint what will the Ombudsman look for?
Complaints about section 19
If your child is not attending school because of possible medical (or other) reasons, we will look at how the council considered its responsibilities to arrange alternative education. We will ask the council how it considered your reasons for your child’s non-attendance, and how it considered evidence from schools and other professionals (such as doctors).
If a council decides not to arrange alternative education, we expect it to explain the reasons for this to parents, and the expectations about school attendance.
If a council does decide to arrange alternative education, then we will ask how the package of support met the needs of the child, and how this was kept under review.
If we find a council has not followed the correct process, we will assess the injustice this has caused. We might find the council should have arranged alternative education, and we will recommend that it puts support in place if your child remains out of education. In some cases, we might recommend a symbolic payment for the impact caused by the loss of education.
Complaints about elective home education
If you decide to educate your child at home the council might ask you to provide details of the work your child is doing so that it can decide whether your child is receiving a suitable education.
Council officers might ask to visit your home to monitor the education that was being provided. We could look at complaints where you felt that:
- the council was putting unreasonable demands on you in requiring you to supply excessive information about the educational provision you were making for your child, or
- the council did not respond appropriately to any requests for guidance about home education you made.
If we find the Council has not acted correctly then we will assess whether you have suffered an injustice. If we find you have suffered distress from the council being too intrusive we might recommend it apologises and explains how it will monitor the home education in future. If we find it did not provide support and guidance then we might recommend it does so. In some cases we might recommend a financial payment if we find you have suffered a serious injustice.
Examples of some complaints we have considered
Mrs B complained the council failed to arrange alternative provision after her daughter, G started refusing to attend school in October. The council held various meetings with the family from the following January to discuss the non-attendance.
In March it offered to arrange some limited home-based activities, but said the school was responsible for making a referral for alternative provision. In June, G’s school contacted the council to request additional funding to support her, but the council said it would only consider providing additional support after it had finished an assessment of her special educational needs.
Our investigation found the council at fault. It had failed to record any decision about whether it owed a section 19 duty for over six months, despite multiple meetings and extensive communication with the family and the school, all of whom raised concerns about the child’s ability to access school. We found the council was unfairly restricting access to section 19 provision by demanding formal referrals were made through the school, despite having evidence from the parents that suggested a possible responsibility to arrange alternative provision.
We found the council should have arranged alternative education from January when it started discussing the non-attendance. We recommended a symbolic payment of £1,800 a term to recognise the impact this had on the family. We also recommended the council produces guidance to its staff to improve the way it records decisions when it becomes aware of a child not attending school.
After an incident at primary school, R’s mum said he could no longer attend, due to his anxiety. She contacted the council and said that R had been struggling to attend for a long time.
The council contacted R’s school about the situation. It said it had been supporting him with his anxiety and he had been coping well in school. It said it did not consider there was a valid reason for the absence, and that R’s mum had not accepted an offer of support to help him return to school.
Our investigation found no fault in how the council acted. The council had promptly consulted with the school, and was satisfied with the support it was offering to reintegrate R. It found no other evidence to suggests there was a medical or other reason that justified alternative education. It explained this to R’s mum, and told her about additional services that might help support the return to school.
The council kept matters under review, and held another meeting in March to consider the ongoing absence. Based on the new evidence it agreed to arrange alternative education. The support was adjusted around R’s ability to engage, with a long-term plan to support his return to school.
Miss H electively educates her son at home. She complained the council did not have a good reason to ask her to prove that the education she was providing was suitable. Although the council would in due course have sought to visit anyway, it made its request based on incorrect information about the child’s actions. It continued to ask for proof of the suitability of education even when the correct information showed it had no reason to pursue the matter. This went on for more than six months. The council threatened to issue an attendance order against Miss H. The council maintained its position after we became involved, despite our warnings that its action had no basis. Miss H could have prevented the council continuing its course by showing it the evidence she showed us. But even if she had, the council’s actions would still have caused her frustration because they were based on an allegation about her child that gave no cause for concern. The council ceased its action, apologised to Miss H and reminded its staff that what they record about parents should be factual and non-judgmental.
Other sources of information
The Advisory Centre for Education www.ace-ed.org.uk
Department for Education www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-education
Education Otherwise www.educationotherwise.org Helpline numbers: 08445 867542; 08445 867543 or 08445 867544
Our fact sheets give some general information about the most common type of complaints we receive but they cannot cover every situation. If you are not sure whether we can look into your complaint, please contact us.
September 2025