Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about the Council’s failure to provide suitable education for her child or meet his special educational needs. Part of the complaint is late. We have already considered and decided a complaint about the Council’s actions between June 2022 and September 2023. An investigation of recent matters would not achieve anything more than the remedy offered by the Council.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains the Council has failed to provide her child, Y, with suitable education or meet their special educational needs over the last three years. She wants the Council to provide her child with suitable education.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. 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)
4. We cannot investigate complaints about matters we have previously considered and decided.
5. 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.
• (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

6. 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

7. I considered information provided by the complainant.
8. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

9. We will not investigate this complaint for the following reasons.
10. A complaint about Council actions before June 2022 is late. There are no good reasons to investigate now.
11. We have already considered and decided a complaint about the Council’s actions for the period of June 2022 to September 2023. We cannot re-investigate matters we have already considered and decided.
12. We will not investigate the Council’s actions from 2023 onwards. The Council has accepted fault and offered a suitable financial remedy for lost education from September 2023 to May 2024. It is unlikely an investigation by us would achieve anything more than the Council’s offer.
13. Only the Tribunal can direct a Council to include specific provisions in an Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan or name a school. Ms X appealed to the SEND Tribunal about the educational placement and specialist provisions in Y’s EHC Plan, which was the correct route to achieve her desired outcome. Ms X has told us the Council has since agreed to name a special school in Y’s EHC Plan. An investigation by us would achieve nothing more.

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Final decision

14. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because part of the complaint is late, we cannot re-investigate matters already considered and decided and an investigation by us would achieve nothing more.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman