Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about the content of an Education Health and Care Plan and education provided as Ms X has appealed to the Tribunal. There is not sufficient injustice in a short delay to warrant an investigation.

The complaint

1. Ms X says the Council delayed in issuing an Education Health and Care Plan (EHC Plan) for B, which she says does not meet B’s needs. She says the Council has failed to provide B with a suitable education.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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.
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. 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 any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
5. We cannot investigate most complaints about what happens in schools. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5, paragraph 5(2), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered information provided by Ms X and the Council.
7. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

8. Ms X is the parent of B. She says B stopped attending school full time in September 2023. In January 2024 she requested an Education Health and Care Plan (EHC Plan) needs assessment. The Council published its EHC Plan in July 2024. She says it was seven weeks later than regulations require.
9. Ms X says the EHC Plan does not meet B’s needs. In September 2024 she appealed to the Tribunal.
10. Ms X says the Council has failed to provide a suitable education to B since September 2023. She says B cannot attend the school named in the EHC Plan. She says this means B cannot access the support set out in the EHC Plan.

Analysis

11. We cannot investigate whether the EHC Plan meets B’s needs as Mrs X has appealed to the Tribunal. We also cannot investigate whether the Council adequately assessed B as the result of that assessment was the EHC Plan.
12. We cannot investigate the education offered to B during the Tribunal. Whether the offer, and that available as set out in the EHC Plan, is suitable is not separable from the issues within the appeal.
13. A seven week delay in the EHC Plan issuing is not significant enough injustice to warrant an investigation.

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Final decision

14. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because we cannot investigate issues which are integral to a Tribunal appeal. The delay complained of is not significant enough to justify an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman