The complaint

2. Mrs X complains about the Council’s handling of her child’s Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan. Mrs X says her child has not been given a suitable school place and the school named on her child’s EHC plan is not her or her child’s preference. She says the process to finalising her child’s EHC plan was delayed and the Council did not communicate effectively during the process. Mrs X says this has impacted her child’s development and has caused her and her child distress.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
4. We cannot investigate a complaint if someone has appealed to a tribunal about the same matter. We also cannot investigate a complaint if in doing so we would overlap with the role of a tribunal to decide something which has been or could have been referred to it to resolve using its own powers. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)
5. 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.
6. In R (on application of Milburn) v Local Govt and Social Care Ombudsman & Anr [2023] EWCA Civ 207 the Court said s26(6)(a) of the Local Government Act prevents us from investigating a matter which forms the “main subject or substance” of an appeal to the Tribunal and also “those ancillary matters that may fall to be decided by the Tribunal…such as procedural failings or conduct which is said to be in breach of the [Tribunal] Rules, practice directions or directions or that is said to be unreasonable…”.
7. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact 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 or continue an investigation if we decide further investigation would not lead to a different outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

8. I considered information provided by the complainant.
9. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

10. In September 2025, the Council issued a final EHC plan. Mrs X did not agree with the named placement and in November 2025, she used her right of appeal to the Tribunal. The matters Mrs X raises relate to or are closely related to the content of the EHC plan. The courts have established that if someone has appealed to the Tribunal, the law says we cannot investigate any matter which was part of, was connected to, or could have been part of, the appeal to the Tribunal.
11. Mrs X says the school placement was unsuitable and her child did not attend. She has since educated her child at home but has asked the Council to provide a suitable interim education. The Council says the school place was suitable and available to the child and as such it had no obligation to provide alternative provision. The matter turns on whether the Council deems the school placement suitable and can meet the child’s needs. That is not a matter on which the Ombudsman can express a view. It is a matter for consideration at Tribunal.
12. The Council did not issue an EHC plan within the statutory timescales. The final plan was more than six months late. The Council acknowledges it did not provide Mrs X with a quality service. During the complaints process, the Council offered Mrs X a financial remedy. We will not criticise the Council’s remedy as it is broadly in line with what the Ombudsman might recommend for the matters we are not barred from investigating. We will not investigate this part of the complaint as an investigation would not lead to a different outcome.

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Final decision

13. We cannot investigate Mrs X’s complaint because she has used her right of appeal to the Tribunal. We will not investigate part of this complaint because it would not lead to a different outcome.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman