Summary: We will not investigate this complaint that the Council has failed to make educational provision for the complainant’s son. There is insufficient evidence of fault on the Council’s part to warrant investigation.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Miss X, complains that the Council has failed to make educational provision for her son while he has not been attending school.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse effect on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start an investigation if we decide the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Miss X’s son has special educational needs and an Education Health and Care plan. She says he has been out of school for fifteen months and throughout that period the Council has failed to make arrangements for him to receive educational provision.
6. In response to Miss X’s complaint, the Council says that provision has been available to her son at his school throughout the period. While it recognises the difficulties Miss X has with having her son at home, it says it has confirmed that the school has offered to make arrangements to assist him to return.
7. The Council also says it has accepted that Miss X’s son may benefit from a specialist education placement, and it began consultations with possible placements in October 2024. It has apologised that this process has been subject to delay, but says that it has made extra funding available to the school to offer appropriate provision for Miss X’s son while a specialist placement is identified.
8. The Ombudsman will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault on the Council’s part to warrant our intervention. The correspondence indicates that, despite the delay in consulting specialist placements, educational provision has been available to Miss X’s son throughout the period at the school where he remains on roll. There is no evidence that he has missed out on educational provision due to fault on the Council’s part and there are therefore no grounds for us to intervene.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault on the Council’s part.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman