Sheffield City Council (21 017 112)
Category : Education > Special educational needs
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 15 Mar 2022
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We cannot investigate this complaint about the Council’s failure to provide alternative education provision for a child out of school because we have already considered that matter. We will not investigate the Council’s failure to pay travel costs for the child to attend his residential placement between 2018 and 2019. This is because these events happened too long ago, and I see no reason why they could not have been raised sooner.
The complaint
- The complainant, who I will call Ms X, complains that the Council failed to provide alternative education provision for her grandson during 2017-2019. She also complains that the Council failed to pay for travel costs for her grandson to attend his residential placement between 2018 and 2019. I will refer to Ms X’s grandson as Z.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
- 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)
- The Ombudsman cannot investigate a complaint about a matter we have previously considered and decided.
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- I will not investigate Ms X’s complaint that the Council failed to arrange alternative education provision for Z when he missed school between 2017 and 2019. This is because we have already considered this matter under a previous investigation.
- I will not investigate Ms X’s complain that the Council failed to pay transport costs for Z to attend his residential placement. This is because these event happened too long ago and I see no reason why they could not have been raised sooner.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because we have previously considered her complaint about the Council’s failure to provide alternative education provision and the other element happened too long ago.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman