Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s involvement with his children. The complaint is late, and Mr X could have complained earlier. The law also prevents us from considering complaints about matters discussed or decided in court and when a person had a right of appeal to a tribunal. Both apply to Mr X’s complaint.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Mr X, complained the Council had:
• Failed to put in place help as suggested by a Family Court judge in 2022.
• Refused to issue an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHC Plan) for his son in 2022, or screen him for autism.
• Failed to respond to his complaint about a social worker made in 2023.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
4. 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)
5. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone has a right of appeal, reference or review to a tribunal about the same matter. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to use this right. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)
6. The First-tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability) considers appeals against council decisions regarding special educational needs. We refer to it as the Tribunal in this decision statement.

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How I considered this complaint

7. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
8. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

9. We will not start an investigation into Mr X’s complaint.
10. The Ombudsman normally expects people to complain to us within twelve months of them becoming aware of a problem. All three strands of Mr X’s complaint are therefore late. We look at each complaint individually, and on its merits, considering the circumstances of each case. But we do not exercise discretion to accept a late complaint unless there are good reasons to do so. I do not consider that to be the case here. Mr X could have complained much earlier and so we will not investigate.
11. Even if Mr X’s complaint was not late, we would not investigate. This is because:
• We have no powers to investigate complaints about matters discussed or decided in court. Any alleged failings by the Council to follow a court’s instructions is a matter for the Court, not the Ombudsman.
• When the Council decided not to issue Mr X’s child with an EHC Plan, it explained there was a right of appeal to the SEND Tribunal. When a person has such a right of appeal, we expect them to use it unless there is a good reason not to. That does not apply here. The SEND Tribunal could have decided the Council should carry out assessments or issue an EHC Plan – these are the outcomes Mr X wanted.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it is late and could have been made earlier. We cannot investigate complaints about matters linked to court proceedings or when it was reasonable for a person to appeal to a tribunal.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman