Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about matters concerning the Council’s actions between 2018 and 2020 in dealing with Mrs X’s children’s special educational needs. These matters have either already been investigated or found to be outside our jurisdiction, or they are ones where investigation is unlikely to lead to a different outcome.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complained about what a Council officer said at a Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal hearing, and about a matter in an email. They also raised issues about the management of a service in 2018 and the content of another email.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Ombudsman investigates 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 may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide further investigation would not lead to a different outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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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. We considered the first and second matters involving the hearing and an email in investigation 20 000 605. We do not consider the same matters twice.
6. Neither of the remaining matters is likely to affect our findings in previous investigations 18 001 692, 18 014 794 or 19 013 024. In each investigation, we found delay by the Council in dealing with Mrs X’s children’s special educational needs and the Council agreed to provide a suitable remedy for the injustice this caused. While Mrs X may wish to pose further questions of the Council, we do not need to do so.

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Final decision

7. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because doing so is unlikely to lead to a different outcome or to add to our previous investigations.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman