The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about school admissions and home to school transport. This is because we cannot investigate complaints about school places at academies. It is reasonable for the complainant to use the Council’s own appeals process if she wants to challenge the decision not to provide home to school transport.
The complaint
The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Mrs X, complained about the decision not to offer her children places at their preferred school. Mrs X is also unhappy the Council has refused to provide one of her children with free transport to the school they have been offered.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers7 The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
We cannot investigate the actions of bodies such as school academies. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 25 and 34(1), as amended) 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 it would be reasonable for the person to ask for an organisation review or appeal. (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
We will not start an investigation into Mrs X’s complaint. The school Mrs X would like her children to attend is an academy. We have no jurisdiction to consider complaints about academies, including school admissions. Mrs X can appeal the decision not to offer a place to an Independent Appeal Panel. If she was unhappy with the outcome, she could complain to the Education and Skills Funding Agency.
Councils are required to have an appeals process for parents who are unhappy with decisions about home to school transport. If Mrs X wants to challenge the Council’s decision about the transport offered, it is reasonable for her to use the Council’s own appeals process. If Mrs X was unhappy with the eventual outcome, she could make a fresh complaint to the Ombudsman.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint. This is because we cannot investigate complaints about academies and it is reasonable for Mrs X to use the Council’s own school transport appeals process.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman