Summary: We will not investigate this complaint that the Council has refused to consider some complaints about a child’s special educational needs. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault with how the Council has dealt with his complaints and we also cannot investigate them for the same or similar reasons given by the Council.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains that the Council refused to consider some of his complaints about his child’s Special Educational Needs (SEN). Mr X wants all of his complaints to be investigated by the Council and seeks compensation.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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 there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
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 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)
5. 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.
6. We investigate complaints about councils and certain other bodies. We cannot investigate the actions of bodies such as schools, the NHS and the Police. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 25 and 34(1), as amended)
7. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint unless we are satisfied the organisation knows about the complaint and has had an opportunity to investigate and reply. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to notify the organisation of the complaint and give it an opportunity to investigate and reply. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(5), section 34(B)6)

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How I considered this complaint

8. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
9. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

10. Mr X submitted over 30 complaints about how the Council dealt with his child’s SEN. The Council is in the process of investigating some of the complaints but has said it will not investigate other matters because they are about the actions of other bodies, they concern matters that are subject to appeals to the SEND Tribunal or because there was no evidence that staff made certain comments and these comments did not have any effect on Mr X’s assessed needs.
11. I will not investigate how the Council has dealt with Mr X’s complaints because there is insufficient evidence of fault. The Council has considered whether it should investigate each of Mr X’s complaints and fully explained why it will not consider some.
12. I will also not investigate Mr X’s complaints for the same or similar reasons. The law prevents us from investigate matters that have been appealed to a tribunal or the actions of the Council during those appeals. We have no jurisdiction to investigate actions by bodies such as the Police, Mr X’s child’s school or the NHS. Some of the matters raised by Mr X are about matters that happened several years ago and I see no reason why they could not have been complained sooner and finally, there is no evidence that alleged comments made by staff have caused Mr X or his child an injustice significant enough to warrant our involvement.
13. I will not investigate other matters as the Council is still considering these under its complaints process. Once it has issued Mr X with a final response, if Mr X is still dissatisfied, he can raise a new complaint with the Ombudsman and ask us to consider these matters further.

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Final decision

14. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault with how the Council has dealt with his complaints and we also cannot investigate them for the same or similar reasons given by the Council.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman