West Berkshire Council (23 007 357)
Category : Education > Special educational needs
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 08 Dec 2023
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the cost of carrying out a task Y needs in order to attend school. The Council has now agreed to pay this cost and to back date the payment.
The complaint
- The complainant, whom I shall call Mrs X, says the Council failed to tell her she could claim costs of supporting her child in school.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- We investigate 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 continue an investigation if we decide:
- we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation; or
- further investigation would not lead to a different outcome; or
- there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B).
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, Y has complex needs. Y started at School Z in September 2022. School Z refused to carry out a medical task for Y. This meant in order for Y to attend School Z, Y’s parents had to go to School Z three times a day to carry out the medical task. Y has an Education Health and Care Plan (EHC Plan), and School Z is the named school.
- Mrs X complained to the Council about the time this took out of Y’s parents’ day and the cost. The Council replied in July 2022. It said it would pay Mrs X for going to School Z and it would backdate the payment for the school year 2022/23. The Council then told Mrs X that it had to get legal advice before it could make the payment.
- In December 2023 after Mrs X had complained to us, the Council agreed to make the back payment and apologised for the delay. It is unlikely our investigation could achieve significantly more.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because it is unlikely we could achieve significantly more.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman