Complaint to the Secretary of State for Education

[NameChangeMoaningMyrtle]

Has any one complained to the Secretary of State for Education under Section 497 of the Education Act 1996 about their LA acting unlawfully?

Any care to share their experiences of doing this?

It's so sad that the majority of people on this board have a story to tell about the illegal wrong-doings of either a school or a LA.

The waiting until being able to tell the story is painful! In my case, I've had to work out what to complain about and what to let rest. So I've gone for the clear breaches of law and ignored the institutional bullying.

Who knows if anyone will be accountable! I'll love to see how they try to wriggle out of this - although, no doubt, they will try.

This thread is so helpful! We've been going through a v long complaints process. Whole thing has been crap and we've been stonewalled at every turn. Today I am told that the school is autonomous so don't need to apologise even though Sec of State has just upheld our complaint? Who are schools accountable to if it isn't the LA? All these people do is create smoke screens- meaningless procedures so your original complaint gets deliberately lost in the detail, you lose heart and give up. I've had to change my name here as I know there are spies from school watching me and my next move! Thanks for all these postings they will prove useful. I'm so sorry for OP ( and others in similar situ) you have had a shocking time but have continued - quite right and good on you ( so many people are spineless and just walk away!)

Well. I've had a formal written response to Stage 2 of my complaint. Yep, the local authority is whiter then the whitest of saints. Oh, no, actually they're not. They are claiming to be a sort of shade of dirty off-white. They've admitted to some murky (probably unlawful) interpretation of the Education Act - one that certainly the LGO would be interested in.

Most of their response has left me laughing so hard because of their lies.

Oh well, onwards and upwards to Stage 3.

I wonder if they're reading this? I must admit, part of me thinks, "should I really do this" but then the outraged of Essex kicks in and some of their response is just so laughable and such a pack of lies, that I feel I just have to respond and escalate it. Hope it doesn't come back to bit me on the bum!

Can I have some advice from you very knowledgeable people? In my very detailed response (so that my complaint goes on up to Stage 3) should I copy in Michael Gove and my MP (they got the original complaint letter)? Or should I just send it to the local authority?

It's really just beween you and the LA at this stage TOWIE. You didn't get responses from Gove opr your MP did you?

In admitting that they may be a slightly off-white shade of perfection did they say what remedy they proposed? The good old 'lessons learned' perhaps?

MP is working on it. No response from Gove yet - but his department state 15 working days to get a response and we haven't reached that deadline yet.

No, no remedy what-so-ever. Just more lies. Not even an apology. Just a very short clipped sentence in the middle of a six page letter which states that they accept it was not done as the "Regulations" specify. Oh, so that would be breaking the law then? So that's ok then, at least we're clear now.

The way that they "allege" it was done, is even more interesting. In fact so interesting, I feel a formal complaint to the ICO coming on!

Gosh when people try to cover up something, the term "can of worms" really does come to mind!

'Tis the lies upon lies TOWIE. sooner or later they come a cropper! Give them enough rope....

I hope you start your Stage 3 compliant with 'As you have now acknoweleged several of your wrongdoings in your response to my Stage 2 complaint......'

Nah - don't feel guily about keeping this going. Just think of it as retribution - of giving them as much grief as they gave you.

If you keep them tied up answering your complaints they can't be off at Tribunals denying other poor sods support - so you're actually performing a public service

Oooo - I like that opening line - mine is far too soft! I'll re-write my opener.

Yes, I think the last few weeks have been very uncomfortable for a certain person (or two) .

Totally agree with performing a public service by keeping them away from other poor sods. I really hope I give them a total thrashing for all they put my family through and all they are still putting other families through.

The thing is, I don't appear to have to give them too much rope, they're doing it all by themselves and have now dug themselves into such a deep hole that I really can't wait to see their response to my Stage 3.

LOL

... and then you can bundle it all up and send it to the LGo asking him to investigate a clear case of maladministration.

Sad thing is they probably think they are doing their jobs very well

Quite. It's going to be very easy for me to bundle it all up and send to LGO!

The thing that staggers me is that they are either out-and-out lying in this letter, or have committed a clear breach of the DPA. Not to mention my original complaint which was a breech in the Education Act (and nothing to do with the DPA but it is now!) It actually would have been better for them if they'd put their hands up to original complaint.

They're not that bright are they?

Ooh, keep at it Towie.
I have a few irons in the fire too at the moment and, like you, they are supplying more and more rope to hang themselves with . I agree with wet that they aren't too bright. There are so many contradictions in their own paperwork that they can't be thinking about what they're writing half the time.
Judgement day is fast approaching now though so I can't wait to see how they try to wriggle even more and make more cock-up's. If they had people like us working for them they wouldn't get in such a mess

Another that can't sleep longlistofcomplaints ?

I think I'm rather enjoying this. It's getting even better because in my day job (when I had a day job ) I advise lawyers on technology issues around electronic files. Amazing what you can find in an electronic files (I did tell the LA that this was my day job - so they only have themselves to blame that they didn't take heed. They probably thought I was just an insignificant ignorant mum who knows nothing )

Yep-am not sleeping much because I have tons of paperwork to scrutinise.
You sound very like me Towie . I have a job involving investigation work and,again, it was known what I did. Dh even warned them that they were making a big mistake. Oh well, they had plenty of opportunity to avoid all this. Bring it on!

Have you had any threats against you yet Towie ? I have had since I started asking too many 'difficult' questions.

longlistofcomplaints Nothing yet. But I'm fully expecting something to happen at the first AR (which is also secondary transition) next September. But hopefully by the time we get to that, they will be treating me with kid gloves or will get their revenge then

Kid gloves . Boxing gloves more like!
Seriously, I think sometimes it can make them wary, other times they just want revenge against you for daring to challenge them. Good luck with it all

So, I've now had a reply from the Department of Education who says that from all the evidence I provided them with, they agree that it was a retrospective consultation in contrary to statutory guidance. But as we "won" the Tribunal, my complaint has been resolved so there's no action Michael Gove can take. They've advised me that I need to continue my complaint through the LA process and then onto LGO. Basically, they are saying that the LA acted unlawfully but the Dept of Education is not interested because I got what I wanted via the Tribunal. So, the LA can break a law which is there to protect vulnerable children, but it doesn't matter one jot that they broke the law.

I've now also had the 3rd stage response from the LA. It repeats the 2nd stage response - the LA is a snowy white shade of saintliness and the LA acted in littleTowie's "best interests" at all times. Yep, the official letter really did use the term my son's "best interests" [splutter]

Also, in my original 2nd stage complaint, I complained that the LA refused to engage with the Working Document prior to the Tribunal. In their answer to my 2nd stage complaint, the LA very arrogantly stated that there were X versions of the Working Document because all the many versions were a "direct attempt by all parties to negotiate before the hearing without the need for a full Tribunal'. In my reply to that, I took great pains in telling them that they needed to check their records, and if they did so they would find that Version 2 (ie the first version which the LA engaged in after I did the original version) was presented to the Tribunal minutes before the hearing and the Judge had to delay the hearing whilst my side read version 2. There LA did not attempt to negotiate at all prior to the Tribunal. The (many) other versions had to be amended post-Tribunal and were to correct the many many typos and incorrect markup formatting in the Working Document ("typos" or deliberate attempts by the LA to change the WD post-Tribunal?).

In the response to that, the LA have totally ignored the fact that they lied in their 2nd stage response. Then brush off their not engaging with the Working Document by stating that I could have gone to Parent Partnership or mediation at any stage. Really? So when the LA doesn't respond or engage in the Working Document, I should have gone to Parent Partnership or mediation to resolve it?

My MP, initially reluctant to be involved, is now taking an active interest in developments and agrees that I have no alternative but to continue my complaint.

So, now I'm off to the LGO. But seeing other MNSNers' experience of the LGO, I'm not hopeful.

Anyone who has complained to the LGO got any advice they could share with me? What's the best process etc?

I am just gobsmacked that everyone I have written to says that I got what I wanted so I should just shut-up and go away.

That is awful but not surprising. This is why the system stinks.

First, most parents do walk away after they have what they wanted - and who can blame them after all the stress?

Second, those that stand and fight find no one wants to hear.

Finally, if you keep going, you find it takes you nowhere.

I have my second complaint in with the LGO and they seem to have taken me much more seriously after my first flawed complaint response. However, who knows what the outcome will be,

I watched Veep the other day and the lead actress Julia Dreyfuss who plays the Vice President has a line where she says:

“I’m about to enter a national ass-kicking contest with no legs and a massive ass.”

And that made me laugh as it seemed a pretty neat way of summing up the plight of the parent against the system.

I'd like to put my fight in to campaigning but that brings up its own problems!!

I hate the phrase 'we did everything in x's best interests'
Also had experience of poor LA responses too. The classic line was, after being kept part time for a year with no full time education provided : although x was part time longer than expected he did remain in school and was not excluded'. Just illegally excluded so that's all right then .
I do have an ongoing LGO complaint which has taken ages as the LA keep 'forgetting' to send paperwork that has been requested or 'forgetting' to answer certain questions. All delaying tactics really, they'd be better off just coming clean but obviously that would be admitting that they were wrong which they'll never do.
I keep wondering whether my MP would be interested but don't know who's friendly with whom iykwim.
I just initially phoned the LGO who logged my call and then agreed to take it on. Their website is quite useful Towie
Good luck - pm me if you need any more details.

I suppose the main thing is that I did "win" and DS's new school is working out extremely well for him. So in that respect, at this precise moment, I'm not still fighting a corrupt system to get him proper provision (although probably will be in a year's time when he goes through secondary transfer).

Because DS is now settled, anything I've done from the time of the Tribunal's decision onwards is no longer stressful or emotional for me. And so I've been treating it more as an unemotional business process to be got through (ok, so that's not entirely true, their replies have enraged me when I read them, but then I let it go - until the next letter). At the very least, I hope that certain people in the LA have gone through a very unpleasant and stressful few weeks - although no-where near as unpleasant and stressful as it was for my DS and my entire family.

DH has just said he wants me to give up now as the system is rotten to the core and complaining further is pointless. But I feel I should keep going. The LA hate me anyway, so I might as well give them something to really hate me for - I've got nothing to loose.

Although I fear the LGO will give me the same answer as the Dept of Education - that I got what I wanted via the Tribunal so the LGO can't help either.

The LA hate me anyway, so I might as well give them something to really hate me for - I've got nothing to loose.

That was my sentiment too TOWIE.

One thing I ensured was in my LGO complaint was the 'unneccessary distress' that the LA caused me and my son by failing to act neither promptly nor reasonably.

The LGO upheld that aspect of my complaint.

Might be worth including that in yours.

Give 'em hell.

I agree. I think the idea that we can somehow make them 'civil' to us is such a joke. They treat you like crap whether you stand up to them or not.

Yet this attitude abounds even amongst education lawyers. LAs hurl around ten tons of crap yet we are supposed to smile sweetly and do as we are asked

Maybe I spent too many years as a criminal lawyer to put up with the pretence of us all working in the 'best interests' of the child together.

Yes Wet our family have been through so much distress it's unbelievable. If some info about my case got out in public people would be shocked and outraged.

I agree towie that it is satisfying letting people that cause the distress stew a bit and be uncomfortable themselves. I sometimes see these people and happily hold my head up high as I know I've done nothing wrong. They on the other hand scurry away with their head down. SHAME ON YOU

Wet That is very useful to know that that part of your complaint was upheld. I've already said as much in my two formal letters to the LA but they have just brushed this off as not important because it was my choice to continue to Tribunal

Is it worth complaining to the LGO that the LA's 2nd stage response is full of (provable) lies, so their complaints process isn't working? Or should I just stick to my original main complaint.

Oh well. In for a penny, in for a pound. Here we go again. I feel I have no option but to continue until the bitter end.

IE, would it be fair to say that proper criminals are usually quite straightforward to deal with, aside from the actual crimes and various ensuing police-related untruths?

I'd personally take an armed robber over a caring carrot any day.