Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint that the Council failed to arrange alternative education provision for his two children and delayed assessing their special educational needs. This is because there is either insufficient evidence of fault, Mr X’s complaint is made late or because Mr X has used his right of appeal to a tribunal.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains that the Council has delayed assessing the special educational needs of his two children, Y and Z, since 2020. He says the Council failed to arrange alternative education provision after they stopped attending school in September 2025. Mr X also complains about how the Council dealt with his complaints about these matters.

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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 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 there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
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 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 – SEND) 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

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

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My assessment

8. I will not investigate Mr X’s complaint that the Council failed to carry out an Education Health and Care (EHC) needs assessment for Y and Z in 2020. This is because this complaint is made late and I see no good reason why he could not have complained sooner.
9. I cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint that the Council’s recent decision to refuse to carry out EHC needs assessments for Y and Z, or that it named a school that could not meet Z’s needs. This is because Mr X used his right of appeal to the SEND Tribunal about these decisions.
10. I will not investigate Mr X’s complaint that the Council failed to arrange suitable education provision for Y and Z from September 2026.This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault. The Council considered Mr X’s request but concluded that both children had a school placement that was accessible and available to the child. Whilst Mr X may have disagreed this does not mean the Council did anything wrong.
11. I cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint that the Council continued to fail to provide Z with alternative provision after it issued an EHC Plan. This is because Mr X appealed to the SEND Tribunal, and part of his appeal is about the suitability of the school placement, we therefore cannot look at the Council’s actions regarding Z’s access to education because it is not separable from that appeal.
12. I will not investigate how the Council deal with Mr X’s complaint. It is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures, if we are unable to deal with the substantive issue.

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Final decision

13. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is either insufficient evidence of fault, Mr X’s complaint is made late or because Mr X has used his right of appeal to a tribunal.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman