-
Case ref:201508546
-
Date:November 2016
-
Body:Edinburgh College
-
Sector:Colleges
-
Outcome:Not upheld, recommendations
-
Subject:special needs - assessment and provision
Summary
Mrs C complained on behalf of her daughter (Miss A) about the college's failure to support Miss A's educational needs, specifically how the college and their staff dealt with Miss A during one academic year in relation to her attendance. Mrs C also complained about inaccurate information provided by the college to the Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS) and about the handling of and response to her complaint.
We did not find evidence that the college unreasonably failed to support Miss A's educational needs or that their handling of and response to Mrs C's complaint was inadequate. We did not uphold these aspects of Mrs C's complaint.
In terms of the information provided to SAAS, this did appear to be at odds with Miss A's student record. However, this resulted in a benefit to Miss A in terms of a reduced invoice from SAAS. We did not regard this as unreasonable and, therefore, we did not uphold this aspect of Mrs C's complaint.
We did have concerns about the lack of a college procedure for the withdrawal of students on medical grounds and about staff making and keeping records of interviews carried out during the investigation of complaints. We made recommendations to address these concerns.
Recommendations
We recommended that the college:
- introduce a procedure for the withdrawal of students on medical grounds; and
- ensure that staff investigating complaints make and keep records of interviews as part of the complaint file.