Source · SPSO (Scottish Public Services Ombudsman)

The Highland Council

SPSO (Scottish Public Services Ombudsman) Partly Upheld Reference 201102837 Sector Local Government Category secondary school; exclusion Decided 01 May 2012

View The Highland Council scorecard

Full decision

Summary

The council decided to exclude Mr C's son from school for five days. He said that they improperly excluded his son and that this breached his rights to an education. He also complained that the council failed to acknowledge responsibility for what he considered was an improper exclusion.

Although we cannot look at matters of discipline in a school, we can look to see whether the correct processes were followed in deciding to exclude a child. In this case we found they were not and we upheld this complaint. As the council had already acknowledged this, rescinded the exclusion and removed any reference to this in the pupil's records, we took no further action.

We did not uphold Mr C's other complaints, as we found that the school had not breached Mr C's son's rights to an education and that they had acknowledged their failures at an early stage.

Related reading

View Decision Report 201102837 as a PDF (16.68 KB) Updated: March 13, 2018

View original on SPSO (Scottish Publ… website

Other decisions involving The Highland Council

Reference Date Summary Outcome
202206966 01 Apr 2024 C was living in a residential unit for young people who are looked after by the council. C complained that … Partly Upheld
202107467 01 Dec 2023 C complained about the council’s handling of allegations that their child made against them, including decisions taken to remove their … Partly Upheld
202002615 01 Apr 2023 C complained about the council’s decision-making in relation to the allocation of Scottish Government Town Centre funding. In terms of … Upheld
201909583 01 May 2021 C complained about the council's social work department's handling of child protection concerns that were raised about their children and … Upheld
201810255 01 Jan 2021 C complained about the council's involvement in respect of the Welfare Guardianship Order (order which allows someone to make ongoing … Not Upheld
View all decisions for this organisation