The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X complaint about the Council’s handling of her concerns about incidents involving her child at their school. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault.
The complaint
Mrs X complains about the Council’s handling of her concerns about incidents involving her child at their school. She says the Council’s investigation was inadequate as it didn’t address her concerns or cover the actions of the school.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
We investigate 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 an investigation if we decide: there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Mrs X’s child, Z, attended a specialist school. This was the school placement named in their Education, Health, and Care (EHC) plan. In September 2023, Mrs X raised concerns to the Council about a safeguarding incident involving her child.
Mrs X was unhappy with the school’s handling of the safeguarding incident and feels insufficient action was taken to prevent the incident from reoccurring. She was also unhappy with the actions of the school’s leadership team as she felt they bullied Z out of the school and inappropriately spoke with Z alone about the incidents. Mrs X complained to the school and the school responded to Mrs X’s complaints under its complaints policy.
The Ombudsman does not have any jurisdiction to investigate actions taken by a school. This means we cannot investigate Mrs X’s complaints about how the school dealt with the incidents, including why the school did not report some incidents to the Police and the school’s communication with Mrs X and Z.
We can only consider the actions of the Council. In this case, the Council’s remit was in relation to its safeguarding duties. The evidence provided by the Council shows it did follow up the matter with the school and noted the school had completed a risk reduction plan to mitigate any risk and an integration support plan to support Z in returning to school. The Council noted it was satisfied with the school’s response.
The Council also held two team around the family meetings with the school and the family to ensure the concerns and issues could be addressed. This shows the Council took appropriate action to support both Mrs X and the school to navigate and address the concerns.
The Council also highlighted it had completed a safeguarding review of the school’s safeguarding processes in March 2023. It noted this review did not identify any significant safeguarding concerns and that safeguarding process was deemed to be effective. While I acknowledge this review took place prior to the incidents Mrs X reported, it nevertheless is relevant evidence for the Council to consider as this was evidence of the effectiveness of the safeguarding processes at the school.
Once it became clear the relationship between Mrs X and the school had broken down, the Council appropriately supported Mrs X to source an alternative placement, and amended Z’s EHC plan without delay to name the new placement once identified.
An investigation is therefore not justified as we are not likely to find fault with the Council. This is because the Council has taken appropriate action to investigate and support MRs X with the concerns in the context of its safeguarding duties. The Council also considered all relevant information before making its decision that it was satisfied with the school’s response to the incidents.
Further, most of Mrs X’s concerns are related to the actions taken by the school. This is not something we could hold the Council responsible for as the school is run independent of the Council.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman