Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about educational provision for a child. Some of the complaint is late, Miss X had an appeals right and it was reasonable to expect her to use them. Additionally, we could not add to the investigation the Council has already carried out, because it upheld her complaint and has provided a suitable remedy for her injustice.

The complaint

1. Miss X complained that her child, Y, had been without a school for 18 months.
2. Miss X said that the Council should provide a personal budget for educational and social purposes whilst Y is without a school, and should reimburse her for expenses she has incurred in providing educational and social activities for Y.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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)
4. 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)
5. 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.
6. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we are satisfied with the actions an organisation has taken or proposes to take. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(7), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

7. I considered information provided by Miss X and the Council.
8. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
9. I considered the Education Act 1996.

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My assessment

10. Some of Miss X’s complaint stems from longer than 12 months ago from the time she first complained to us. We will not investigate this aspect of Miss X’s complaint from before early March 2024. It is late and I see no good reason to exercise discretion to investigate.
11. A parent has a right to appeal to the Tribunal about the provision specified in the Education, Health and Care Plan (EHC Plan) under Section F, and the school or other setting named, or the type of setting named under Section I.
12. Miss X was notified of her right to appeal to the Tribunal when Y’s EHC Plan was issued in 2024. We will not investigate this aspect of her complaint about the Council’s decision relating to Y’s EHC Plan. It was reasonable to expect Miss X to exercise her rights to apply to the Tribunal if she was dissatisfied here.
13. The Council carried out a detailed complaint investigation for Miss X. The Council documented the efforts it made to identify a school placement for Y, that it had offered online tuition for Y.
14. The Council however, accepted that it had not met its legal obligations to Y by securing them alternative provision in line with Section 19 of the Education Act 1996.
15. The Council offered Miss X an apology and a symbolic payment that is in line with our guidelines for recognising that a child has missed school provision.
16. We will not investigate this aspect of Miss X’s complaint. This is because the Council has taken appropriate action to prevent reoccurrence of this fault and offered a suitable symbolic payment as a remedy for the injustice. There are no wider public interest issues to justify our investigation.

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Final decision

17. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because some of it is late, some carried appeal rights which it was reasonable to expect Miss X to use, and we could not add to the investigation the Council has already carried out because it has offered a suitable remedy for Miss X’s injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman