Lancashire County Council (22 012 208)
Category : Education > Special educational needs
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 16 Jan 2023
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about whether an Education Health and Care Plan meets her child’s needs. She has appealed to the Tribunal and we cannot investigate the same issue.
The complaint
- The complainant, whom I shall call Mrs X, says the Council has named an unsuitable provision in her child’s Education Health and Care Plan (EHC Plan).
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- We cannot investigate a complaint if someone has appealed to a tribunal about the same matter. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)
- The First-tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability) considers appeals against council decisions regarding special educational needs. We refer to it as the SEND Tribunal in this decision statement.
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by Mrs X and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mrs X’s child, D, is 12 years old. She says D has been out of education since March 2022. She says the Council delayed in producing a final EHC Plan. She says the EHC Plan does not meet D’s needs. She says it names a mainstream school she says has accepted it cannot meet D’s needs.
- The Council in reply to Mrs X’s complaint has accepted this is the case. It says it has arranged one to one tutoring for five hours a week for the meantime.
- Mrs X’s has appealed the EHC Plan contents to the Tribunal, SEND. She says the hearing is not scheduled until September 2023.
Analysis
- We cannot investigate the same issues the Tribunal is considering. This means we cannot investigate if the EHC Plan meets D’s needs.
- We could consider the EHC Plan assessment process delay effects. But we cannot find out the effect of those delays until the Tribunal concludes and the final EHC Plan known.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because we cannot investigate the same issues the Tribunal is considering.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman