Summary: We will not investigate this complaint that fault on the Council’s part led to the complainant’s son losing the offer of an appropriate educational placement. This is because the complaint concerns the school placement of a pupil with an Education Health and Care plan, which is a matter which carries the right to appeal to the First-tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability).

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mrs X, complains that fault on the Council’s part led to her son losing a place at an appropriate specialist educational placement.

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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. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone has a right of appeal, reference or review to a tribunal about the same matter. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to use this right. (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 Tribunal in this decision statement.

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

7. Mrs X’s son has special educational needs and an Education Health and Care (EHC) plan. Mrs X believes his current placement does not meet his needs. She says she identified an alternative placement which offered her son a place. She complains that the Council did not accept the place for her son and, as a result, it was allocated to another pupil.
8. The Council says it told the placement provider that it would refer its offer to the relevant panel for consideration. It says this was the appropriate course of action in the circumstances and it was not therefore at fault.
9. The Ombudsman will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint. We can express no view on the suitability or otherwise of Mrs X’s son’s current placement, or the placement she prefers. That is a matter which can be determined through the process of reviewing and amending the EHC plan.
10. If Mrs X wants a specific placement for her son, she may ask the Council to name it in the EHC plan. If it declines to do so, she has the right to appeal to the Tribunal. That is her recourse. Where appeal rights exist, we normally expect them to be used. That is the case here, and we will not intervene.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because it concerns a matter which carries the right to appeal to the Tribunal.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman