Education and Training
This section looks at ADR options available for disputes relating to education and training, including primary and secondary schools, higher education, and continuing and adult education. You can find more information about problems with education through the Advicenow website. There are also links at the bottom of this page to websites which will give you more information about education disputes.
This page contains information about:
Admissions
Exclusions
Special educational needs
Other complaints about schools
Discrimination, including disability discrimination
Higher education
Admissions
If your child does not get their first choice of school, you can appeal to the admissions authority concerned. The authority must give you information about how to appeal, and set up an independent appeal panel to consider your appeal within a reasonable time. If you are not successful at the appeal panel, then you may be able to take your complaint to the Local Government Ombudsman in England, the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales or the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman.
The ombudsman can only consider your complaint if:
- the admissions authority made a mistake or behaved unfairly
- the admissions policy did not conform to the national code of practice for admissions
- the admissions authority did not arrange an appeal panel within a reasonable time
- the appeal was handled incorrectly
The ombudsman will look at complaints about community, foundation, voluntary aided, voluntary controlled or nursery schools.
The ombudsman cannot consider complaints about independent (private) schools, Free schools, city technology colleges or Academies.
Complaints to the ombudsman must be made within 12 months of realising that the admissions authority or the appeal panel has done something wrong. However, it is a good idea to get in touch with the ombudsman as soon as possible, in order to minimise disruption to a child's education.
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Exclusions
If your child has been excluded from school, the first place to complain is to the school itself. Schools must have a complaints procedure, and you can complain to the governing body about a decision to exclude your child. If you are not happy with their response to your complaint, you can appeal to the local authority (the council), who must set up an independent appeal panel to consider your case. If your child is still excluded, then the local authority must make provision for alternative education for your child.
At this stage you can complain to the Local Government Ombudsman in England, the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales or the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman. The ombudsman can consider a complaint about:
- the way the hearing was carried out
- the procedures the panel used
- whether you had a fair hearing
- the alternative education provision the council has offered
The ombudsman cannot look at the school's original decision to exclude your child, or the governors' decision to confirm it.
If the council is taking too long to set up the appeal panel, or offer alternative education provision, you can still go to the ombudsman with a complaint. The ombudsman suggests that 12 weeks is a reasonable period of time. The ombudsman may also take on the complaint if the matter is urgent, or you or your child are particularly at risk. If this might be the case, then you should speak to the ombudsman's advice line. Up-to-date phone numbers are on the ombudsmen's websites - there are links at the bottom of this page.
The ombudsman cannot overturn the decision of an independent appeal panel, but if s/he finds something wrong in the way the panel dealt with an appeal, the council can be asked to set up a fresh panel to hear the appeal again. The council can also be asked to:
- review its procedures or training for panel members
- offer another school place to your child
- meet its statutory duties in providing alternative education
- pay compensation if your child has been without education for a long time
It is worth noting that ombudsman investigations can take a long time, and a child may well be settled at a new school before the ombudsman makes a decision.
You should also be aware that the ombudsman cannot look at complaints about the quality of education at a school, the staff, or the way the school manages discipline. If you have concerns about any of these things, you can complain to Ofsted.
Mediation is sometimes offered as an option in disputes over school exclusions, or potential exclusions, although its geographical availability is patchy. Mediation in such cases is usually free, although the way it is provided varies. Some mediation services are independent, and some are provided by the local authority itself. Some local authorities are training education staff members to offer mediation between parents and head teachers. If the relationship between the school and the family has been damaged by the complaints procedure or the ombudsman investigation, it may be appropriate to think about whether mediation could help both sides talk about the future, and try to restore communication.
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Special educational needs
Mediation
Children with special educational needs must have their needs met by the school. The Department for Education (DofE) has produced a Code of Practice which explains what schools must do, what role parents can play, and what can be done if the school and the family can't agree about how best to meet a child's needs.
The Code makes it clear that it is best to resolve disputes at an early stage through good communication - parents and teachers should talk to each other as soon as there are difficulties. All local authorities are required to provide some kind of early disagreement resolution for disputes about special needs arrangements. Local authorities can make this provision in different ways, but the Code states that it must be independent, it must be voluntary, and it mustn't prevent parents making an application to the Tribunal (SEND) if they want to. Most local authorities have chosen to make Mediation available for SEN disputes, usually in partnership with a local independent mediation service. You can have a look at a profile of the SEN Mediation in London on this website to see how one such scheme works. A number of regional providers of SEN dispute resolution services can be found in the ADR Directory.
In Scotland, the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act came into force in November 2005. This talks about additional support for learning instead of special educational needs, and provides a code of practice which offers detailed guidance on the new system. Factsheets with information about how this works in Scotland can be found on the Enquire website.
If SEN disputes can't be resolved through discussion with the school, or through mediation, then you can apply to the First Tier Tribunal (SEND) in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. You can appeal to the Tribunal if:
- the school refuses to carry out a formal assessment of your child's special educational needs
- the school refuses to make a statement after a formal assessment has been carried out
- you disagree with parts 2, 3 or 4 of the statement
There is more information in the Department for Education SEN Code of Practice, or on the First Tier Tribunal (SEND) website. In Scotland, these disputes normally go to the sheriff court.
It is worth noting that appeals to the SEND Tribunal can take up to 6 months, or sometimes longer. One of the advantages of mediation is that is can usually be set up much more quickly than this. If it is possible to resolve the problem through mediation, it may well result in an agreement which all the parties can live with, without making the problems between school and family worse. Since trying mediation won't prevent an appeal to the tribunal, it can be worth asking about mediation as well as putting in a formal application to the tribunal, keeping both options open.
Ombudsman schemes
There may be some disputes about SEN provision which can't go to the tribunal. It may be possible to take some of these complaints to the Local Government Ombudsman in England, or to the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman or the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales in Scotland or Wales. These public services ombudsmen will look at complaints about the way the local authority has dealt with a complaint, such as delay in assessing a child's needs or amending a child's statement, or failure to provide the support which the statement outlines. Have a look at What is maladministration? for more information about the kinds of complaints that ombudsmen will accept.
The ombudsman will nearly always speak to the family and the school at an early stage, to see if a settlement of some kind can be agreed. If not, the ombudsman will decide whether to conduct a full investigation and publish a report. The report can recommend compensation to the parents, and/or a review of the local education authority's procedures, but cannot overturn a decision. The ombudsman cannot usually investigate a dispute where the parent has a right to tribunal.
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Other complaints about schools
As of April 2010, parents and students in some parts of England can go to the Local Government Ombudsman with unresolved complaints about schools. This service will covers only selected local authority areas - check the Local Government Ombudsman website. The government has decided not to offer this service across other parts of England as had been anticipated.
In the areas where it is offered currently, this widens the LGO's involvement in school-based complaints and disputes beyond special educational needs and admissions and potentially can include any internal matter such as a school's approach to discipline and the way uniform policies are enforced. In almost all cases the complaints must first be considered at school level before the Ombudsman will get involved.
Complaints about academies in England can be considered by the Young People's Learning Agency.
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Disability discrimination
If your child has been discriminated against at school because of a disability, you have three options.
1. You can take the case to the county court (or sheriff court in Scotland)
2. You can take the case to the First Tier Tribunal (SEND)
3. You can try to resolve the dispute through the Equalities Mediation Service (EMS)
The EMS provides free, independent mediation of disputes arising under the Equality Act. You must be referred to the scheme through the Equality and Human Rights Comission helpline, or you can ask a Law Centre or other advice agency to refer your case.
You need to think first of all about what you would like to achieve - an apology, an explanation for what went wrong, a change of practice in the school, compensation. Different dispute resolution processes will be better at achieving different outcomes. It is a good idea to get some independent legal advice before you decide which route to go down.
Have a look at the Pros and Cons of ADR for more information about the different options.
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Higher education
Ombudsman schemes
In England and Wales, the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education (OIA) reviews complaints by students about universities and other higher education providers. As with most ombudsman schemes, in order to take your complaint to the OIA, you must first go through the internal complaints process.
The OIA can't investigate complaints about admissions or academic judgement, although it can consider complaints about academic 'status', such as those related to academic appeals, assessments and grades. It can investigate complaints about teaching and facilities, accommodation, research supervision, reasonable adjustments, discrimination, support services and other issues.
The OIA operates independently of universities. When a complaint is accepted, the OIA seeks information from both the student and the university and makes a recommendation. Where a complaint is found jusitifed or partly justified, the OIA's recommendations aim to return the complainant to the position he or she would have been in but for the failure of the university - for example, by recommending that a student can resume their studies or that the examination board should reconsider a degree classification. Where it is not possible to restore the student to the position he or she would have been in, the OIA can recommend compensation. So far no university has failed to comply with the OIA's recommendations.
Complaints about further and higher education in Scotland can go to the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO). Like the OIA, the ombudsman is free to use and independent. The SPSO cannot change a grade or investigate academic judgment but it can consider how academic appeals have been handled.
Mediation
Mediation is available for complaints about discrimination, in particular disability discrimination, by universities and colleges. The Equalities Mediation Service is a specialist discrimination mediation service; it is free to use. The service is described elsewhere on this site.
In 2007 a research project was set up to explore how disputes in higher education institutions are resolved. The research project audits current practice and experience and tries to identify factors which might suggest which disputes are suitable for mediation. You can keep up to date with the project's findings on their website: Improving dispute resolution in higher education
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September 2011
