East Sussex County Council (24 018 324)
Category : Education > Special educational needs
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 14 Mar 2025
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X complaint about her child’s education. She has used her right of appeal to a tribunal which places the complaint outside of our jurisdiction.
The complaint
- Mrs X complains that the Council failed to provide suitable full time education provision for her son.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
- 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)
- 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.
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mrs X’s son has an Education Health and Care (EHC) Plan. An review was carried out an Mrs X wanted a specialist school named in the plan. The Council however made the decision to maintain the EHC Plan, keeping the mainstream school named in Section I.
- Mrs X appealed the Council’s decision to the SEND Tribunal. She and her family subsequently moved outside of the Council’s area.
- I cannot investigate the Council’s decision to maintain Mrs X’s son’s EHC Plan. This is because she has used her right of appeal which places the decision outside of our jurisdiction. This exclusion applies to the matter appealed and anything closely related, such as the education provided.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because she has used her right of appeal to the SEND Tribunal.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman