Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council (19 020 368)

Statement Closed after initial enquiries Special educational needs 28-Mar-2020

Summary: The Ombudsman cannot investigate Ms X’s complaint about her son’s special educational needs and the Council’s evidence at the Special Educational Needs Tribunal. Ms X’s complaint is outside the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction because Ms X has appealed to the Tribunal.

Warwickshire County Council (19 018 439)

Statement Closed after initial enquiries Other 27-Mar-2020

Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Mr X’s complaint. He has not been caused any significant injustice by the Council using a single point of contact and the Information Commissioner’s Office is better placed to consider his information complaint.

Cambridgeshire County Council (19 009 586)

Statement Not upheld School transport 25-Mar-2020

Summary: The Ombudsman does not find fault with the way the Council considered Miss B’s application and appeal for transport assistance for her daughter.

Norfolk County Council (19 016 403)

Statement Closed after initial enquiries Other 24-Mar-2020

Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Mr X’s complaint that the Council prosecuted him for taking his child out of school and that an enforcement agent is demanding he pays £610. The Council was entitled to prosecute Mr X and has not caused him an injustice. The court’s decision and actions of its enforcement agent are outside the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction.

Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council (19 019 671)

Statement Closed after initial enquiries Other 24-Mar-2020

Summary: The Ombudsman cannot investigate Mrs X’s complaint about a lack of support in her daughter’s previous school. This is because we cannot consider complaints about what happens in schools.

Suffolk County Council (19 008 771)

Statement Not upheld Special educational needs 24-Mar-2020

Summary: Mrs X complains about the Council’s assessment of her son’s education, health and care needs, and the way it dealt with her complaint. She says the Council failed to obtain relevant advice from professionals so the education, health and care plan was not fit for purpose. She says she was forced to get a private assessment and was forced to appeal the plan at tribunal. Mrs X says this caused stress and distress, and cost her time and trouble. The Ombudsman does not find the Council at fault. The Ombudsman cannot investigate the parts of Mrs X’s complaint about the education, health and care plan because Mrs X had a right to appeal to a tribunal and we therefore have no discretion to investigate.

Cumbria County Council (19 008 965)

Statement Upheld Special educational needs 23-Mar-2020

Summary: Ms X complained the Council has not adequately met her children, D and E’s special educational needs. The Council failed to plan ahead for their transition to adulthood or consider how D and E would be supported to continue to access training or education until their 18th birthdays. It also failed to properly implement the recommendations from its investigation of her complaint. It has agreed to pay Ms X £500 for uncertainty arising from the identified faults, complete the actions it promised to and review its practice to avoid reoccurrence of these faults.

Wokingham Borough Council (19 010 009)

Statement Upheld School transport 23-Mar-2020

Summary: Mr B complains the Council did not award school transport help for his daughter. Mr B says he lives over the statutory walking distance away from the school. He says the Council uses two different mapping systems, which produce two different distances. The Ombudsman finds fault in how the Council considered Mr B’s appeal. We also find fault in the information the Council provides about how it measures distance.

South Tyneside Metropolitan Borough Council (19 012 123)

Statement Not upheld Special educational needs 23-Mar-2020

Summary: Mrs X complained about support the Council provided to her son and delay in issuing an Education, Health and Care Plan. We have discontinued our investigation into her complaint. We were unable to contact her to obtain further information and parts of her complaint are out of our jurisdiction.

Devon County Council (19 017 780)

Statement Closed after initial enquiries Special educational needs 23-Mar-2020

Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint about the educational provision made for the complainant’s son. This is because it is unlikely he would find fault by the Council in the arrangements it made with the complainant for her son’s education, and it has offered an appropriate remedy for other agreed faults.