Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about Education Health and Care Plan matters. A Tribunal appeal covered most of his complaint. And there is not enough injustice to warrant an investigation for a short period when B may have missed their full provision.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about issues relating to the Council’s production of an Education Health and Care Plan (EHC Plan) and the education his child, B received.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We cannot investigate most complaints about what happens in schools. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5, paragraph 5(2), as amended)
3. We cannot investigate a complaint if someone has appealed to a tribunal about the same matter. We also cannot investigate a complaint if in doing so we would overlap with the role of a tribunal to decide something which has been or could have been referred to it to resolve using its own powers. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by Mr X, and the Council’s replies to him.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Mr X says his complaint falls into four issues:
1. Illegitimate threats; bullying and intimidation; deliberate retention of inaccurate information in EHC Plan; refusal to facilitate transparent assessments, and supporting unreliable testament to justify inaccurate EHC Plan data:
2. Time excluded from class in School Q; Failure to fulfil the educational provision specified in section F of B’s EHCP:
3. Inaccuracies, slander, omissions, misgrading during Educational Psychologist’s (EP) assessment and refusal to fulfil assessment:
4. Deliberate retention of inaccurate information in section D of B’s EHC Plan.

Analysis

7. We cannot investigate matters covered by a Tribunal. In February 2023, Mr X appealed the EHC Plan. The Tribunal decided in October 2023 to adopt a draft version and said School P named in the EHC Plan was suitable. It said it had made extensive case management decisions during the appeal.
8. The Tribunal proceedings mean we cannot investigate:
1. whether the EHC Plan was worded properly. This includes Mr X’s complaint that it contained inaccurate information.
2. the assessments, such as the EP assessment, which fed into the EHC Plan were satisfactory, because those assessments affected the EHC Plan which had been appealed.
3. the Council’s conduct during the appeal. This is a matter for the Tribunal, and its decision covers this issue.
9. It seems B received education in school but outside of the classroom towards the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023. Mr X says this was for a longer period than the Council accepts. Mr X says this means B did not receive the education and support set out in the EHC Plan. The Council say B did receive their EHC Plan. It says B still had time with their peers through group work.
10. We will not investigate this. The injustice to B appears at most to be minimal and not significant enough to warrant our investigation. Also if B needed any ‘catch up’ support, if they did miss out, then it is reasonable to expect Mr X to have asked the Tribunal to add this to the EHC Plan.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because we cannot investigate issues within a Tribunal. There is not enough injustice in the claimed short period of missed provision to warrant an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman