Middlesbrough Borough Council (22 002 690)

Category : Children's care services > Child protection

Decision : Closed after initial enquiries

Decision date : 19 Jun 2022

The Ombudsman's final decision:

Summary: We cannot investigate this complaint about a child’s education and Special Educational Needs provision. This is because this matter is currently part of ongoing court proceedings.

The complaint

  1. The complainant, who I will call Ms X, complains about how the Council has dealt with matters relating to her daughter’s education and Special Educational Needs (SEN) provision.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

  1. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
  2. We cannot investigate a complaint about the start of court action or what happened in court. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5/5A, paragraph 1/3, as amended)

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

  1. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
  2. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

Back to top

My assessment

  1. I cannot investigate Ms X’s complaint. This is because the Council has commenced legal proceedings in relation to the matters complained about. These proceedings are ongoing.
  2. The Council has said it would investigate Ms X’s complaints once these proceedings have ended. It is therefore reasonable for Ms X to ask for the council to review her complaint once the proceedings have ended.

Back to top

Final decision

  1. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because the matter is subject to ongoing court proceedings.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

Print this page

LGO logogram

Review your privacy settings

Required cookies

These cookies enable the website to function properly. You can only disable these by changing your browser preferences, but this will affect how the website performs.

View required cookies

Analytical cookies

Google Analytics cookies help us improve the performance of the website by understanding how visitors use the site.
We recommend you set these 'ON'.

View analytical cookies

In using Google Analytics, we do not collect or store personal information that could identify you (for example your name or address). We do not allow Google to use or share our analytics data. Google has developed a tool to help you opt out of Google Analytics cookies.

Privacy settings