School admissions
This fact sheet is aimed primarily at parents and carers of children who have not been offered a place at their preferred school and who may be considering making a complaint to the Ombudsman. (If your concerns are about infant class size, see our fact sheet on infant class size appeals).
My child did not get a place at the school we applied to. Can I complain to the Ombudsman?
In some cases, yes. The Ombudsman is not another level of appeal and cannot question decisions if they were taken properly by the admissions authority (the body making the decision whether to offer a place) or the appeal panel.
The Ombudsman can consider your complaint if you think that a place at a school was refused because of a mistake by the admissions authority, or if your appeal was handled incorrectly.
You can also complain if you have asked for an appeal and the admissions authority has not arranged an appeal hearing for you within a reasonable time. The relevant timescales can be found in the School Admissions Appeal Code (2022).
You can complain to the Ombudsman if the school you have applied to is a community, foundation, voluntary aided, voluntary controlled or nursery school. We cannot deal with complaints about academies, independent (private) schools, free schools or city technology colleges. If a school converts to an academy during the admissions process, we may be able to consider a complaint.
How do I complain?
If you are refused the school place you asked for and you want to pursue the matter, the first thing you need to do is to make an appeal. The admissions authority should tell you how to do this.
If your appeal is not successful and you think that the admissions authority or appeal panel has acted incorrectly then you can complain to the Ombudsman.
Usually, you should complain to us within 12 months of when you first knew about the problem. If you leave it any later, we may not be able to help.
For more information on how to complain, please read our step by step process.
If your complaint is about the refusal of a nursery school place you will not be able to appeal to an appeal panel so you can complain to us as soon as you have had your complaint considered by the admissions authority.
If you can consider my complaint what will the Ombudsman look for?
We consider whether the admissions authority or appeal panel has done something wrong in the way it dealt with your application or appeal. Some of the issues include the following:
- the admissions authority failed to apply the admission criteria properly or fairly
- the appeal panel did not follow the procedure set out in the School Admissions Appeal Code (2022)
- the appeal panel did not take relevant information into account in reaching its decision or took irrelevant information into account
- the decision letter did not give reasons for the decision
- the panel did not act independently.
What happens if the Ombudsman finds the admissions authority or appeal panel was at fault?
The Ombudsman cannot overturn an appeal panel’s decision. But if we find that something has gone wrong in the way your application or appeal was dealt with, and we think a mistake might have affected the outcome, we may:
- ask the admissions authority to hold a fresh appeal with a different panel and clerk
- ask the admissions authority to offer a place at the school you wanted. This only happens in exceptional cases where, for example, the published admission criteria have been applied wrongly and your child has been denied a school place as a result, or
- recommend that the admissions authority reviews its appeal procedures so that the problems you experienced don’t happen to other parents.
What if my child has an Education, Health and Care Plan?
If you are unhappy about your school offer, you need to appeal to the First-tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability). We cannot consider a complaint about an appeal to the Tribunal.
We may consider a complaint about any delay by a council in arranging an offer of a place at a school once the final Eduation, Health and Care Plan has been issued.
What if my complaint is about a waiting list?
Waiting lists must be run fairly and in line with the admission authority's published over-subscription criteria. If your complaint is only about a waiting list, you cannot appeal to an appeal panel. You can make your complaint straight to us, once the admission authority has provided a final response to your complaint.
How long does an Ombudsman investigation take?
If we decide we should not investigate your complaint, we will make that decision as quickly as possible. If we decide your complaint needs a detailed investigation, this will take some time. We usually need to request information from the school or council and we must give both parties the opportunity to comment on our draft findings before we make a final decision. Because of this we might not be able to reach a decision about your complaint before the start of a school year. You should therefore make arrangements to educate your children while you are waiting for our decision.
Examples of some complaints we have considered
We found the council at fault because the notes of the appeal hearing did not show how the panel decided whether the admission arrangements were properly applied. There was also no evidence to show the panel discussed whether the admission of additional children would prejudice the efficient education of those already attending the school. We recommended the council apologise to Mrs Y and arrange a new appeal with a different panel and clerk.
Ms X complained that she was not given the opportunity to properly present her case during a school admission appeal hearing. She said a panel member was rude which caused her significant distress and impacted on her ability to participate with the hearing.
We found the notes of the appeal hearing were detailed and reflected all the points Ms X wanted to raise in support of her case. Panel members understood the points she made and properly considered the issues before them. Although Ms X felt a panel member was rude, there was no independent evidence to support this claim. We found there was no fault in the procedure followed and so we could not question the outcome of the appeal.
Other sources of information
- Coram Child Law Advice at: www.childlawadvice.org.uk/information-pages/school-admissions/
- Government advice on school admissions at www.gov.uk/schools-admissions
- Government advice on school admission appeals at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/admission-appeals-for-school-places
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.
April 2025