Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about how the Council dealt with his request it educate his child out of year group. The complaint is late and it was reasonable for Mr X to complain sooner. Also, the Council agreed to Mr X’s request so there is no worthwhile outcome from us investigating.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Mr X, complained about the Council’s handling of his request made in 2023 that it educate his child (Y) out of year group. Mr X says the Council twice refused his request before eventually agreeing. Mr X says the Council failed to provide explanations for its decisions.

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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 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, or
• there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

7. We will not start an investigation into Mr X’s complaint.
8. The Ombudsman normally expects people to complain to us within twelve months of them becoming aware of a problem. Mr X’s complaint is 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.
9. Even if we did treat Mr X’s complaint as on time we would not investigate. This is because the Council agreed to Mr X’s request. There is no worthwhile outcome we could now achieve for Mr X by investigating his complaint.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it is late and it was reasonable for Mr X to complain earlier. There is no worthwhile outcome we could now achieve for Mr X.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman