The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision not to consider a request for special arrangements in its grammar school entrance test. This is because the Council has now agreed to consider the request and to review its procedures. This is a suitable remedy for the complaint.
The complaint
The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Mrs X, complained the Council had refused to consider her request for special testing arrangements for her son (Y) who has special educational needs. Mrs X wants the Council to provide Y with his own room and extra time when he sits the Council’s grammar school entrance test. The Council refused to consider Mrs X’s request because she did not submit it until after the Council’s published deadline.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
The Ombudsman investigates 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 may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide: we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
During my consideration of Mrs X’s complaint I identified several issues with the Council’s decision: It said it would not consider any requests for special entrance test arrangements received after the closing date. The Council was therefore fettering its discretion and making a blanket decision, rather than looking at each case on its merits.
There was no evidence the Council considered the reasons Mrs X gave for her late request.
The Council told Mrs X it “will not” / “cannot” consider any requests for special test arrangements received after the closing date. But its coordinated admissions scheme states “Any access/special arrangements request received after the date shown in the above Key scheme dates table may not be processed.” ‘May not’ is not the same as ‘will not’ or ‘cannot’ and suggests the Council can consider late requests.
The information in the Council’s coordinated admissions scheme is different to the information on its website.
There was a potential equalities issue around whether the Council was failing to properly consider a request for a reasonable adjustment.
In response to the above points the Council agreed to consider Mrs X’s late request for special test arrangements. It would write to Mrs X and other parents who had made a late request. It would invite them to submit the information the Council needed.
The Council also said it would review the information it publishes to ensure consistent information is available. It would do this by March 2023. The information would therefore be available in time for parents who want to request special arrangements for the 2023 test.
The Council’s actions are a suitable remedy for Mrs X’s complaint and so an investigation is not warranted.
Final decision
We will not investigate this complaint because the Council has agreed to take steps which are an appropriate remedy.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman