Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the placement named in her child’s Education, Health and Care plan, home-to-school transport and data matters. This is because she had the right to appeal to the First-tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability) and it would be reasonable for her to do so. The Information Commissioner's Office is better placed to consider and decide data matters. Mrs X has not yet completed the appeals-process for free home-to-school transport.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains the Council:
1. failed to secure a suitable permanent school placement for her child.
2. did not properly consider her application and appeal for school transport.
3. disclosed her personal information without consent.
2. She says this has caused distress and anxiety and affected her child’s education.

Back to top

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. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone has a right of appeal, reference or review to a tribunal about the same matter. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to use this right. (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. We normally expect someone to refer the matter to the Information Commissioner (ICO) if they have a complaint about data protection. However, we may decide to investigate if we think there are good reasons. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
7. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint unless we are satisfied the organisation knows about the complaint and has had an opportunity to investigate and reply. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to notify the organisation of the complaint and give it an opportunity to investigate and reply. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(5), section 34(B)6)
8. We will not usually investigate complaint handling if we are not investigating the rest of the complaint. This is because there is not usually enough injustice to justify us doing so. We collect information about particularly poor complaint handling practice and report this back to organisations. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), section 34B(8))

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

9. I considered information provided by Mrs X and the Council.
10. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

Back to top

My assessment

11. Mrs X’s child, Y, has an Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan. Mrs X says the Council has failed to secure a special school placement for her child, who has an interim alternative provision placement instead. She also says the Council will not provide free home-to-school transport for her child.
12. The Council finalised Y’s most recent EHC Plan in October 2025 and named a mainstream setting. Mrs X complained to the Council.
13. The Council explained it had consulted many settings, but they could not meet Y’s needs. It said it would continue to look for a suitable setting.
14. We will not investigate this complaint. Mrs X had a right to appeal the content of the EHC plan, including the named placement, to the Tribunal. It would have been reasonable to expect Mrs X to use her right of appeal to the Tribunal.
15. Mrs X applied for free home-to-school transport for Y. The Council refused the application. Mrs X appealed the decision at stage one of the Council’s appeal process. The Council upheld the decision.
16. We will not consider this matter because Mrs X has not yet completed the stage 2 appeals process. She can complete the process and if she is still dissatisfied with the decision, she can refer the matter back to us for consideration.
17. Mrs X says the Council has shared her personal information with a third party without her consent. She also says it did not process a Subject Access Request (SAR) in the statutory timeframe.
18. We will not consider these matters. The Information Commissioner (ICO) considers complaints about data protection legislation and subject access request responses. It is not for the Ombudsman to trespass on the ICO’s role. If Mrs X considers the Council has breached data protection rules, the ICO is better placed to consider a complaint about this.
19. Mrs X is also unhappy with the Council’s communication and complaint-handling. It is not a proportionate use of our resources to investigate the Council’s complaint handling or ancillary matters when we are not investigating the substantive issues.

Back to top

Final decision

20. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because she had the right to appeal to the First-tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability) and it would be reasonable for her to do so. The ICO is better placed to consider and decide data matters. We will not consider the matter about free home-to-school transport for Y because Mrs X has not yet completed the appeals-process.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman