Milton Keynes Council (24 021 241)

Category : Education > Special educational needs

Decision : Closed after initial enquiries

Decision date : 02 Sep 2025

The Ombudsman's final decision:

Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint that her son, B, is not receiving the special educational provision in his education, health and care (EHC) plan because there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating.

The complaint

  1. Mrs X is concerned that her son, B, is falling behind his peers at school.
  2. She is concerned the school has not delivered the special educational provision in his education, health and care (EHC) plan.
  3. She asked the school for evidence and is unhappy with the school’s response. She will not accept assurances from the school and the Council without some form of evidence.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

  1. 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 do not start or continue an investigation if we decide:
  • there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
  • we could not add to any previous investigation by the organization.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

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

Back to top

My assessment

  1. B has an education, health and care (EHC) plan maintained by the Council. He attends a mainstream primary school. The school told Mrs X at a parents evening that B’s “output and quality” had declined. Mrs X is concerned this is because he is not receiving the special educational provision in his EHC plan.
  2. She complained to the school and the Council. The Council’s EHC Specialist Teaching team carried out an observation of B in class and a consultation with the school. The Council was satisfied the school was delivering the provision in B’s plan. The school noted B’s progress at the annual review of his plan.
  3. Mrs X does not accept the school or the Council’s assurances without evidence the provision was delivered.
  4. My role is to check how the Council responded when Mrs X reported her concerns. We cannot investigate complaints about schools. And we have neither the authority nor the expertise to judge whether a pupil is making adequate progress.
  5. I have read B’s latest EHC Plan to familiarise myself with the special educational provision it contains. I note the Council responded to Mrs X’s concerns by sending the EHC Specialist Teaching team to the school to observe B in class and discuss the provision with the school. This is what I would have expected given Mrs X’s concerns. The Council was satisfied with the provision.
  6. There is not enough evidence of fault by the Council to justify investigating Mrs X’s complaint.
  7. Mrs X wants evidence the school has delivered the provision in B’s EHC plan. In this case, the evidence is what the Council saw when it visited the school.

Back to top

Final decision

  1. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint that her son, B, is not receiving the special educational provision in his education, health and care (EHC) plan because there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

Print this page

LGO logogram

Review your privacy settings

Required cookies

These cookies enable the website to function properly. You can only disable these by changing your browser preferences, but this will affect how the website performs.

View required cookies

Analytical cookies

Google Analytics cookies help us improve the performance of the website by understanding how visitors use the site.
We recommend you set these 'ON'.

View analytical cookies

In using Google Analytics, we do not collect or store personal information that could identify you (for example your name or address). We do not allow Google to use or share our analytics data. Google has developed a tool to help you opt out of Google Analytics cookies.

Privacy settings