Summary: We will not investigate this complaint that the Council has failed to make alternative educational provision for the complainant’s daughter while she has been unable to attend school. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault on the Council’s part to warrant investigation.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mrs X, complains that the Council has declined to provide alternative educational provision for her daughter while she is unable to attend 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. Mrs X’s daughter has special educational needs and an Education Health and Care plan. She says her daughter has been unable to attend school since October 2024. She has asked the Council to make alternative provision under section 19 of the Education Act 1996 and complains that it has declined to do so.
6. In its response to Mrs X’s request for alternative provision, the Council says that, in its view, there is no alternative provision available which meets her daughter’s needs better than the school at which she is on roll. It says it is working with the school to facilitate her return. It does not therefore accept that its section 19 duty to make alternative provision is engaged.
7. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault on the Council’s part. It is not for the Ombudsman to express a view on whether the section 19 duty is engaged. That is for the professional judgement of the Council’s officers. Mrs X disagrees with the Council’s decision. But that does not mean it amounts to fault.
8. The question for the Ombudsman is whether there is evidence of fault in the way the Council made its decision not to make alternative provision. There is no such evidence. That being the case, it is not for the Ombudsman to criticise the decision or intervene to substitute an alternative view.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mrs 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