Independent Education Advice

Local Government Ombudsman

(often known as the Education Ombudsman)

I have this week learned that I have won four further complaints to the Ombudsman on behalf of clients, securing fresh appeals or in one case a direct place. That makes a total of 11 successes out of eleven so far, with other complaints in the pipeline. Further details later.

Earlier I won complaints to the Ombudsman on behalf of seven families at Sir Joseph Williamson's Mathematical School, Rochester. Medway Council admitted major faults in the process, coupled with further faults by the Independent Appeal Panel and has now offered places at the school to all those boys who had passed the Medway Test, but were turned down on appeal. This is the third time in six years I have secured places at this school through complaints to the ombudsman on behalf of groups of parents, representing a total of 27 families over this time, along with many others who were successful at appeal in the first place!

I have a number of other complaints working through with good prospects of success. I am happy to take on other complaints.

The Ombudsman has published Reports on complaints about Admission Appeals for The Judd School and Skinners School (dated October 31st 2007). Details are here.

I am pleased to report that my recent record with ombudsman complaints is 39 successes out of 45 (however, I always advise on the chances of success, so that I do not take on cases that I consider unwinnable).

The new Code of Practice for School Admission Appeals appears to be causing considerable problems for appeal panels, especially with grammar school appeals. I am currently dealing with twelve cases for the Ombudsman where I believe there is a good likelihood of success, with other enquiries coming in. I am happy to advise on whether there may be a case.

The Ombudsman published a Report on a number of successful complaints at Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Faversham, where I secured places for eight children (22 May 2007). Following resolution of the complaints, each family appealed a second time for a place at the school with my support and was successful. The Foundation school had used the KCC Appeals Service and the summary sentence of the Report reads 'Governors cannot take it for granted, without proper enquiry, that the appeals service which they commission will be fit for purpose'. This is a powerful indictment of the process, and the Ombudsman found sixteen different examples of maladministration in the operation of the appeals, including wholly inappropriate questioning, an inadequate clerking service, information provided to the Panel but not to parents, incorrect procedural guidance issued by KCC to parents, pressure put on parents to keep statements and hearings unneccesarily short, refusal to accept parental evidence, improper consideration of headteacher appeal evidence, etc, etc. The previous year another Report on one of my cases was published, this time at St John’s RC Comprehensive school in Gravesend. The importance of these cases can be seen in that the ombudsman only published eight cases nationally on school admission issues last year. Copies of these reports are available from the Ombudsman's Office. A summary of the most recent reports can be found here.

Some of the most contentious appeals in 2007, that gave rise to ombudsman complaints were at Maidstone Grammar School, Simon Langton Grammar School and The Skinners School.

You have no chance of winning a complaint to the ombudsman simply because you disagree with an appeal panel decision. You have to show that the panel has not followed correct procedures in such a way that a wrong decision may have been taken.

Where grammar schools are full or nearly full, appeal cases are often fraught with difficulties for the appeal panel as the regulations are unclear, and often lead to successful complaints to the ombudsman.

The most likely outcome of a successful admissions complaint to the ombudsman is a fresh appeal under a different panel, unless the fault is such that the complainant would have been entitled to a place if the panel had acted properly.

In education matters, the Local Government Ombudsman primarily deals with school issues which relate to admissions, exclusions, and Special Education Needs. He does not get involved with other “issues of internal school management”. I am happy to advise if there is a case to be made.

In most cases, a successful complaint about admissions to the ombudsman would result in a fresh appeal in front of a different Panel. In my experience, complaints generally take between two and six months to be resolved.