Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of Mr Y’s Education, Health and Care Plan and its failure to arrange alternative provision between 2017 and March 2024. This is because the complaint is late. Ms X’s complaint about matters from March 2024 onwards is premature.

The complaint

1. Ms X’s child, Mr Y, is a young person who has an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHC Plan). Ms X complains the Council:
1. failed to provide Ms X with information on requesting a personal budget when Mr Y’s mainstream school could no longer meet his needs in 2019;
2. took over three years to issue Mr Y’s first final EHC Plan in March 2020;
3. failed to carry out annual reviews of Mr Y’s EHC Plan between 2020 and 2023; and,
4. failed to provide suitable education for Mr Y while he was unable to attend school between September 2020 and August 2024.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
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. 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)
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 SEND Tribunal in this decision statement.
6. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint unless we are satisfied the organisation knows about the complaint and has had an opportunity to investigate and reply. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to notify the organisation of the complaint and give it an opportunity to investigate and reply. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(5), section 34(B)6)

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How I considered this complaint

7. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
8. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

9. Ms X complains that, between 2017 and 2023, the Council failed to provide information about requesting a personal budget, delayed issuing Mr Y’s first final EHC Plan and failed to carry out annual reviews. These complaints are late, as Ms X did not complain to the Ombudsman until March 2025, and there are no good reasons for us to exercise discretion to investigate.
10. Ms X’s complaint about the Council’s failure to arrange suitable alternative provision while Mr Y was unable to attend school between 2020 and March 2024 is also late. There are no good reasons for us to exercise discretion. Further, there was an ongoing SEND Tribunal appeal between September 2023 and March 2024. During this time, the matter of whether the Council should have arranged alternative provision was linked to the suitability of Mr Y’s school, which was the subject of the appeal. We cannot look at any complaint that overlaps with a SEND Tribunal appeal.
11. Ms X’s complaint about the Council’s failure to arrange alternative provision since the SEND Tribunal decision from March 2024 is premature. This also applies to her complaint about the Council’s failure to issue a Plan in line with the Tribunal’s decision. I will not investigate these complaints as it is reasonable to give the Council the chance to do so first. If Ms X remains unhappy with the Council’s final complaint response, it is open to her to contact us again.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of Mr Y’s Education, Health and Care Plan and its failure to arrange alternative provision between 2017 and March 2024. This is because the complaint is late. Ms X’s complaint about matters from March 2024 onwards is premature.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman