Summary: We cannot investigate Ms Y’s complaint about the Council’s provision of education for her client’s daughter. It is not separable from the matters a Tribunal considered.

The complaint

1. Ms Y complains on behalf of Mr and Mrs X about the Council not putting in place alternative arrangements for their daughter’s education when she was unable to attend a placement.
2. Ms Y also complains about the Council’s complaint handling.
3. Since bringing her complaint to the Ombudsman, Ms Y has complained the Council failed to follow the directions of the Tribunal following an appeal.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
5. 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)
6. 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.
7. In R (on application of Milburn) v Local Govt and Social Care Ombudsman & Anr [2023] EWCA Civ 207 the Court said s26(6)(a) of the Local Government Act prevents us from investigating a matter which forms the “main subject or substance” of an appeal to the Tribunal and also “those ancillary matters that may fall to be decided by the Tribunal…such as procedural failings or conduct which is said to be in breach of the [Tribunal] Rules, practice directions or directions or that is said to be unreasonable…”.

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How I considered this complaint

8. I considered information provided by Ms Y and the Council.
9. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

10. We cannot investigate issues, events and matters involved in the Tribunal appeal. This means we cannot investigate what the young person’s needs were, what provision the Council should have provided and where. This covers the time from when the EHC Plan was issued in June 2024 until the Tribunal’s decision in July 2025. We cannot investigate if the education provided in the meantime was suitable as this is not separable from the matters appealed.
11. Ms Y has also complained the Council has not followed the SEND Tribunal’s decision to arrange or continue with provision until Y attends school full-time. Ms Y has raised a separate complaint with the Ombudsman about this matter therefore I will not consider it here.
12. Ms Y complains about the Council’s complaint handling. We will not investigate how the Council dealt with Mr and Mrs X’s complaints as it is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint handling when we are not looking at the substantive issues.

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Final decision

13. We will not investigate Ms Y’s complaint because the matters she complains of are not separable from a Tribunal appeal.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman