Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about an Education Health and Care Plan. It is reasonable to have expected her to have appealed to the Tribunal.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Ms X, says the Council failed to name a school in an Education Health and Care Plan and has failed to find one since.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone can appeal 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 appeal. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)
3. 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.

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by Ms X and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Ms X’s child, Y, has additional needs. A child with special educational needs may have an EHC plan. This sets out the child’s needs and what arrangements should be made to meet them. The EHC plan is set out in sections. We cannot direct changes to the sections about education, or name a different school. Only the Tribunal can do this.
7. The Council issued a final EHC Plan in February 2023. Ms X says the Council failed to name a school in the final EHC Plan. She says it has since failed to secure a specialist placement for Y.
8. The Council says it has provided mentoring in the meantime and, as a result of Ms X’s complaint, has increased its offer of alternative provision.
9. It is reasonable to expect Ms X to have appealed to the Tribunal to have a named placement in the EHC Plan. We cannot investigate issues which are a consequence of that right of appeal and what that appeal would have included. That includes the alternative provision.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because it is reasonable to have expected Ms X to have appealed to the Tribunal.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman