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Selected Quote:

A recent appreciation, following a successful ombudsman case and subsequent offer of a school place: "What can I say; thank you seems wholly inadequate? Everybody says education is one of the most important factors in a child's life but let me tell you an educational adviser such as yourself has been the most important factor in ours as parents. Your advice and wisdom proved invaluable to us and when we despaired of ever achieving a positive outcome there you were gently guiding us with logic, a level head and endless amounts of patience. Your knowledge of the educational system was paramount in securing a place for our daughter and it was this knowledge that turned a maybe into a successful definitely. We are forever indebted to you and whilst we hope we wont need you again would not hesitate in contacting you should the necessity arise. Once again thank you" . Letter in East Kent Gazette: “We were thrown a lifeline when someone gave us the details of Peter Read, an Independent Education adviser from Gravesend. I would like you readers to know just what a saviour he was to us”. (Successful ombudsman complaint).

Local Government Ombudsman

(often known as the Education Ombudsman)

The Local Government Ombudsman now has three main areas of responsibility for complaints about education (complaints about the school have now been added). Please note that he has no responsibility for complaints about Academies. For these you should complain directly to the Department for Education (and good luck to you!). Currently they do not appear to have a Section set up for such matters.

The Ombudsman can deal with complaints about:

1) Appeals against Admission or School Transport issues, where these have been heard by an Independent Appeal Panel;

2) Some Aspects of Special Educational Needs;

3) If you are disatisfied with the way that a complaint ot the school has been handled.

The Ombudsman website is at LGO

1) School Admission Appeals

• 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.

• School appeals depend on a generally excellent group of unpaid but trained volunteers, with only one member on a panel of three required to have an educational background. Without them, the appeal system could not function and most appeals are conducted courteously and fairly. However, some go badly wrong and the local government ombudsman exists to consider complaints about process. Further details at ombudsman.

• I am pleased to report that the first four complaints I have made this season on behalf of clients to the Ombudsman that have been settled, have all gone in their favour with fresh admission appeals. A number of others are still ongoing. Last year my succsses included two primary school appeals. Both of the families were subsequently awarded places in the Reception year at their chosen school. This brings my total in recent years to 31 successes out of 37 (however, I always advise on the chances of success, so that I do not take on cases that I consider unwinnable). Parents who use my services are saved  the stress and work involved in the process and are kept fully informed of progress. I will often explore aspects of the complaint that are not obvious, but are likely to lead to a fresh appeal. 

• 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 my experience, complaints generally take between two and six months to be resolved, but a recent one went on for eight months.

Successful Ombudsman Complaints in Kent against Foundation and Voluntary Aided School Admissions for 2008 entry were as follows. Please note, most of these will have led to fresh hearings and not necessarily a place at the school): Deal Parochial CofE Primary School 1, Barton Court Grammar School 1, Bennett Memorial Diocesan School 1, Cranbrook School 0 (+6 in 2007), Dane Court Grammar School 3, Dartford Boys Grammar School 1, Dover Grammar  School for Boys 1, Folkestone School for Girls 1 (+ 1 in 2007),  Gravesend Grammar School 2, Gravesend Grammar School for Girls 1,The Judd School 1, Rochester Grammar School 1, Robert Napier School 1, St George's CofE School Gravesend 1, Simon Langton Grammar School for Boys 1, The Skinners School 2,  Thomas Aveling School 1, Tunbridge Wells Grammar School for  Girls 5 (+ 1 in 2007), Westlands School 1, Wilmington Grammar School for Boys 4, The Grammar School for Girls Wilmington 2, Wrotham  School 2. 

Complaints against Schools controlled by KCC or Medway Council are not listed individually but are contained in the Reports below.

•  The Ombudsman published two reports on complaints following Kent School Appeals in February 2009. Both can be found here. The first of these, following a complaint by me, was about an infant admission appeal to Deal Parochial Primary School. As a result, the child was awarded a place at the school. This case highlights a worrying feature of a number of church school admission policies (both primary and secondary) across Kent. The dioceses of both Canterbury and Rochester are required to be consulted on these, but the procedure is clearly faulty. The school adjudicator examined a number of these in the summer and as a result, there are some changes in the pipeline. The second Report is on Fulston Manor School. Interestingly, although there were considerable faults identified in the appeal process, the Report agrees that the decision not to uphold the appeal was the correct one! Fulston Manor School has taken steps to remove the faults in its procedures. There have been no subsequent problems with appeals at the school.

• The Ombudsman archive pages referred to above, reveal that three of my complaints have produced published Reports (where the complaint may be of national interest), out of a total of 16 on school admissions in the past three years. Indeed as one Report was for seven of my clients, these amounted to a majority of all complaints! A total of five out of the fifteen Reports relate to Kent schools (all Foundation or Voluntary Aided Schools).

• For 2008 entry, 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!

• Because there was a local settlement, not all issues were considered by the Ombudsman, but he expressed considerable concern over the operation of the Medway oversubscription distance criteria for oversubscription. A number of parents were never given details of why their sons had been turned even after the Panel Chairman instructed the Council to provide these before individual appeals. The Council was criticised for not providing the correct paperwork for the appeal and for introducing new evidence (actually just assertions) at the appeal, without notice. The Council neither provided details of the school capacity, not any evidence there would be prejudice if additional pupils were admitted. The council presenting officer did not know that secondary school rolls were falling in Medway. The previous headteacher (now retired) stated at his Open Evening that in the past all parents whose sons had passed the Medway Test and persevered in their applications to the school had eventally been offered places.

For entry in September 2009, the school strongly resisted any additional admissions and just three appeals were successful. This time, although the Ombudsman recognised faults in the process he did not uphold any complaints. 

• Another of my successful ombudsman complaints was at The Thomas Aveling School in Medway for 2009 entry, the key issue once again being faulty distance plotting. I have won several appeals on these grounds in previous years.

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

• 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. Copies of these reports are available from the Ombudsman's Office. A summary of the most recent reports can be found here. 

• Please note that if your child has now secured three Level Fives at SAT Level 2, this is not grounds to complain to the ombudsman for a grammar school appeal as the Panel did not know the results at the time. There have to be additional grounds of maladministration to win a fresh appeal.

• The Local Government Ombudsman publishes an annual letter to Local Authorities, reporting on complaints made to him. You will find the relevant paragraphs for Kent and Medway here.

2) Complaints about Aspects of Special Education

• Currently I have no experience of these, but you will find further details here. My sense is that where a complaint to SENDIST is also possible, the latter is preferable, as it has carries the force of law and worsk to a stricter timetable.

3) Complaints about the internal management of schools

• This is a new area of responsibility for the Ombudsman being introduced in stages across the country. Medway was in the first tranche, since Easter 2010, with Kent following from September 2010.

• The areas for complaint appear to be fairly wide; however the Ombudmsan can only investigate a complaint by parents if the schools complaint procedure has been followed through. For this reason it is important to keep a record of proceedings.

• Before complaining to the Ombudsman over an aspect of the school management of your son's education you should consider what you might achieve by it. Currently complaints can take between two and six months to complete and if the Ombudsman considers a miscarriage of justicie has occurred so that your child has been penalised in some way, he can recommend redress. It is difficult to say what such redress will be until we see the outcomes of some cases, but there will not be a significant financial penalty, if any. I suspect for many cases, by the time a recommendation is forthcoming, the case will have become historical and there is no ready solution, except perhaps an apology by the school.