Summary: Mr X complained the Council failed to provide suitable education for his child, Z, when Z missed significant amounts of education over several years. We have not investigated this complaint. This is because most of the complaint is late and because investigating the other part would not lead to a worthwhile outcome, nor the outcome Mr X is seeking.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained the Council failed to ensure his child, Z, received suitable education when they were unable to attend school in person for mental health reasons, from September 2021 to January 2024.
2. Mr X said the Council’s faults caused them both distress, caused Z to avoidably miss education and caused financial loss to Mr X as he had to instruct a solicitor and fund tuition for Z himself.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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 cannot achieve the outcome someone wants; or there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
4. 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)
5. 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)
6. It is our decision whether to start, and when to end an investigation into something the law allows us to investigate. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 24A(6) and 34B(8), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

7. I considered evidence provided by Mr X, I spoke with Mr X over the phone and considered the law around our role and powers.
8. Mr X and the Council have an opportunity to comment on my draft decision and any comments received are considered before making a final decision.

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What I found

9. Mr X’s complaint covers the period from September 2021 to January 2024.
10. I have decided that we should not investigate this complaint and explain my reasons below.

September 2021 – March 2023

11. Between September 2021 and March 2023, Z’s school attendance significantly reduced. Mr X did not raise a complaint about this and bring it to the Ombudsman at the time. This is now very late and no good reason has been provided for us to exercise discretion to investigate this period.

March 2023 to October 2023

12. Between March 2023 and January 2024, Z stopped attending school completely and this period is most relevant to Mr X’s complaint to us.
13. After several months where Mr X reported that Z received no education, in October 2023 Mr X instructed a solicitor who sent a letter before action to the Council seeking education to be put in place for Z. The Council sent its final response to Mr X’s legal letters on 8 November 2023. From this point, Mr X could have complained to the Ombudsman.
14. If Mr X had complained to the Ombudsman promptly after the Council’s final legal letter, the Ombudsman could have considered this complaint about the period beginning in March 2023. However Mr X did not bring this complaint to the Ombudsman until almost twelve months later, on 30 October 2024.
15. Mr X explained that he wanted his solicitor to represent him in his complaint to the Ombudsman and was waiting to obtain the money needed to pay for this. Mr X ultimately decided to bring the complaint to us without legal representation.
16. As a publicly funded body we must be careful how we use our resources and so we cannot investigate late complaints (where someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about a council’s actions) without good reason. Waiting for a solicitor is not a good reason, as the Ombudsman service does not require complainants to have legal representation. For this reason, I have not investigated the period between March 2023 and 30 October 2023, as these events all occurred more than twelve months before Mr X brought the matters to our attention.

31 October 2023 – January 2024

17. We also cannot investigate a complaint unless we are satisfied that the council knows about the complaint and has had an opportunity to respond. This means generally we will cease our investigations by the date of any final complaint or legal response by the Council and decide that any events which happen after this time should be raised as a new complaint.
18. In this case, the Council’s final legal response was dated 8 November 2023. Any events after this time the Council did not have notice of and so I have not investigated here.
19. There is a period between 31 October 2023 and 8 November 2023 which is in time and we could investigate. However I have decided we should not investigate this approximately one week period. The reason for this is that we cannot achieve the outcome Mr X wants from investigating within this timeframe. Mr X is seeking reimbursement for legal fees and for private tuition that he paid for and we could not achieve this outcome from only investigating this very brief period.
20. Nor would there be a worthwhile outcome achievable from us investigating this period, as the timeframe is too small to meaningfully address Mr X’s complaints, consider the cause of any fault, or make relevant service improvement recommendations.
21. Z is no longer missing education as Z now has a place at Mr X’s preferred school. Z began attending there in January 2024 and Mr X says Z is doing well academically.

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Decision

22. I have decided not to investigate this complaint.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman