Schools could face being investigated by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman over their provision for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) under plans being discussed with government officials.
The ombudsman has been in talks with the Department for Education (DfE) about being given powers to investigate complaints about individual schools, it has emerged, following a recommendation by the House of Commons Education Committee.
The ombudsman can currently investigate cases into the actions of local authorities but does not have the power to investigate schools.
However, in a scathing report about the SEND system last year, the Education Committee called for the ombudsman to be able to look at complaints at school level from the parents of children with SEND.
Now, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has told Tes that talks about this have taken place and are ongoing, following the committee’s recommendation last year.
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The Education Committee report warned that poor implementation of SEND reforms to support children and young people has thrown families into crisis, set councils up to fail and left schools struggling to cope.
It said: “Two select committees have independently identified a problem with the current extent of the powers of the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman: It is now up to the government to act.”
It added: “The department should, at the earliest opportunity, bring forward legislative proposals to allow the Ombudsman to consider what takes place within a school, rather than-in his words-only being able to look at “everything up to the school gate”.
In the government’s response to this report, the DfE said: “We welcome the committee’s interest in this area and the way in which the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has engaged with us over the recommendation.
“We will continue to communicate with the Ombudsman and stakeholders to ensure complaints are handled appropriately.”
Michael King, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman said: “We have called for a change in the extent of our powers for many years to improve transparency and ensure parents have an independent route to redress about all aspects of education provision.
“We previously operated a pilot scheme for schools’ complaints, in cooperation with the Department for Education and 14 local authorities, in which we investigated concerns about issues not able to be resolved through local processes. This demonstrated the value and practicality of such arrangements.
“We believe the availability of a genuinely independent body in the complaints process sits comfortably with the principle of school autonomy and would provide a simple and effective route for parent and pupil voices to help drive up standards, and so we will continue to make the case with the department for the legislative change needed for this to happen.”
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has previously warned that children with SEND were being let down by a system that is meant to support them.
A DfE spokesperson told Tes that its ongoing SEND review is considering evidence submitted by the committee.
