School admissions
This fact sheet is aimed primarily at parents whose child has 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 on 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.
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 to an independent appeal panel. The admissions authority should tell you how to do this.
If your appeal to the appeal panel 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 went about dealing with your application or appeal. Some of the issues we can look at are:
- that the admissions authority failed to apply the admission criteria properly or fairly
- that the appeal panel did not follow the proper procedure set out in the Government’s School Admissions Appeal Code
- that the appeal panel did not take relevant information into account in reaching its decision, or took irrelevant information into account
- that the decision letter did not give reasons for the decision, and
- that the panel did not act independently.
What happens if the Ombudsman finds that 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 that might have affected the decision, we may:
- ask the admissions authority to hold a fresh appeal with a different panel
- ask the admissions authority to offer a place at the school you wanted. This only happens occasionally where, for example, it is clear that the published admission criteria have been applied wrongly and your child has been denied a place as a result, or
- recommend that the admissions authority reviews its appeal procedures so that the problems you experienced don’t keep happening 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). That is a national body, not a local one. We cannot consider a complaint about that appeal.
We could consider a complaint about any delay by a council in arranging an offer of a place at a school once the final statement 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 admission criteria. If your problem is just about a waiting list, you cannot appeal to an appeal panel so you can make your complaint straight to us, once the admission authority's complaints process has been completed.
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 (we aim to do so within four weeks). If we decide your complaint needs a detailed investigation, this will take some time. We usually have to request information from the school or council and have to give both parties the opportunity to comment on our provisional findings before issuing a final decision. This may mean we do not reach a decision before the start of the 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 school was at fault, in that it had not recorded, and could not show, how the panel considered Mrs Y’s grounds of appeal, how it had considered the evidence, or how it had reached the decision to refuse the appeal. We recommended it apologise to Mrs Y, arrange a new appeal hearing with new panel members, and take action to prevent repetition of its failures in future cases.
he evidence showed that Ms X was able to set out her personal circumstances and those of her children in support of her appeal. It also showed that the panel members understood the points she made and properly considered the issues before them.
We found that there was no fault in the way the panel considered the case. Therefore, we could not question the decision to refuse the appeal
Other sources of information
ACE Education Advice & ACE Education Training (ACE) at www.ace-ed.org.uk
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.
March 2023