Decision report 201002776

Summary
Mr C is the father of a boy who was temporarily excluded from secondary school. He complained that the council did not reasonably investigate his complaints. In the course of our investigation, we looked at the council’s Management Circular No. 8: Procedures Governing the Exclusion of Children and Young People from School (the circular) which lays out the procedures that must be followed when pupils are excluded.

The council gave us information about how the school handled the exclusion. This showed that the school did not comply with some sections of the circular. They did not arrange a meeting within seven days of the date of exclusion, and there was no evidence of a homework programme being sent to the excluded pupil or tutorials being offered on his return to school. They did not use relevant forms and the information that the school recorded did not reasonably cover the information to be recorded on these forms. We saw no evidence that the school investigated the complaints. We therefore considered the response sent to Mr C to be unreasonable and noted that the council previously accepted that it was not in line with their guidance.

Recommendations
We recommended that:
• the council apologise to Mr C that they did not reasonably investigate or respond to the complaints lodged;
• the school revise their procedures to ensure that the terms of the circular are
properly fulfilled, and the council audit the school’s revised procedures; and
• the council ensure that senior staff from the school participate in the first wave of
the refresher sessions on handling formal complaints that they are planning.