Summary: We cannot investigate this complaint that the Council has failed to find a school her Miss X’s child. This is because she has used her right of appeal to a tribunal.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains that the Council has failed to find a school for her son who has an Education Health and Care (EHC) Plan. Miss X says her son is not receiving appropriate education provision.

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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 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)
4. 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

5. I considered information provided by the complainant @and the Council.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. The Council issued a final EHC Plan for Miss X’s son with no school named in Section I. Mrs X used her right of appeal to the SEND Tribunal against the decision not to name a school in the Plan. Thereby placing it out of our jurisdiction.
8. Any lack of appropriate education once appeal rights were engaged is not separable from the substantive matter being appealed, therefore I cannot investigate this aspect of the complaint either.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because she has used her right of appeal to the SEND Tribunal.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman