Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about Education Health and Care Plan issues. There are no good reasons to investigate issues before October 2023, and it is reasonable to expect Mrs X to have appealed the Council’s decision to name a school to the Tribunal. We are unlikely to achieve more than the Council has offered as a remedy for missed provision.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains the Council failed to provide her child, Y, with a suitable education, hold an annual review of Y’s Education Health and Care Plan (EHC Plan) and failed to name a suitable school in that EHC Plan.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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/care provider has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
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 SEND Tribunal in this decision statement.
5. 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 could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation; or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome; or
• there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.
  (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

Background events

8. The Council provided Y with an EHC Plan in January 2023. It held an annual review in June 2023. It provided an amended EHC Plan in February 2024 naming School Z. In October 2024 Mrs X complained to the Council about EHC Plan matters and included that Z was not in education. It replied at stage one and stage two of its complaints’ procedure. This finished in February 2025. It considered Mrs X’s complaint from events from October 2023, which is 12 months before she complained. It offered £3600 for missed education, £200 for delays and £200 for distress. Mrs X was not happy with this and complained to us.

Complaints and analysis

9. Mrs X complained about seven issues:

Failure to provide a full time education from June 2022 to September 2023

10. We will not consider this period of time. We cannot investigate events which have been known about for more than 12 months. It is reasonable to expect Mrs X to have complained about missed education at the time.

Failure to provide suitable alternative provision from September 2023 to July 2024 whilst in key stage two 

11. The Council has accepted this and offered a remedy in line with our remedies guidance. We are unlikely to achieve more.

Failure to name a school on the deadline February 2024

12. The Council issued a final EHC Plan in February 2024. It is reasonable to expect Mrs X to have appealed to the Tribunal if she was unhappy with the school named.

Failure to provide a school setting or suitable full time alternative provision from September 2024 to present day for key stage three

13. The Council has accepted this and offered a remedy in line with our remedies guidance. We are unlikely to achieve more.

Failure to provide what is prescribed within Y’s EHC Plan from June 2022 to present day

14. The Council has accepted a failure from October 2023 until February 2025 and has offered a remedy in line with our remedies guidance. We are unlikely to achieve more.

Failure to review Y’s annual review on time. 

15. The Regulations require an annual review is completed by the anniversary of the first EHC Plan. The Council accepts none was held in 2024. However, it is unlikely we could say there is any significant injustice from this. The main injustice would be denied appeal rights and an EHC Plan which does not meet need. The Council issued an amended final EHC Plan in February 2024 which gave Mrs X full appeal rights.

Failure to communicate financial information for travel arrangements

16. The Council says payments have now been made. We are unlikely to achieve more.

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Final decision

17. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because there are no good reasons to consider matters before October 2023 and it is reasonable to expect Mrs X to appeal the Council’s decision to name School Z in an EHC Plan. We are unlikely to achieve more than the remedy the Council has offered for missed provision.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman