Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint that the Council named an unsuitable college in Miss Y’s Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan or that it failed to deliver the content of the EHC Plan to Miss Y. This is because Mrs X had a right to appeal the content of the EHC Plan to the SEND Tribunal.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains on behalf of Miss Y. Mrs X said the Council:
1. named an unsuitable college in Miss Y’s Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan; and
2. failed to deliver the content of Miss Y’s EHC Plan to her.
2. Mrs X said the matter caused her frustration and distress. She said it meant Miss Y missed out on the provision in her EHC Plan.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
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 Tribunal in this decision statement.
5. 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)
6. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse effect 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 an investigation if we decide the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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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. Miss Y has an Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan. In early April 2024 the Council finalised Miss Y’s EHC Plan naming a mainstream college – college A, in section I of the EHC Plan.
10. Mrs X complained to the Council in September 2024. She said college A was unsuitable for Miss Y’s needs and expressed a view that Miss Y required a specialist college. She said the content of Miss Y’s EHC Plan was not being delivered to her.

Analysis

11. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint that the Council named an unsuitable placement in section I of Miss Y’s EHC Plan. This is because once the EHC Plan was finalised it was open to Mrs Y to appeal the content of the EHC Plan to the SEND Tribunal.
12. Only the Council or the SEND Tribunal can change the named placement in section I of an EHC Plan. Consequently, it is reasonable to expect Mrs X to have used her right to appeal to the SEND Tribunal, and so we will not investigate this complaint.
13. We will also not investigate Mrs X’s complaint that the content of Miss Y’s EHC Plan was not delivered to her.
14. The reason Miss Y did not receive the content of her EHC Plan is because of a disagreement about the suitability of the placement named in section I of the EHC Plan. Because this is linked to a matter that Mrs X could have appealed to the Tribunal, we will not investigate.

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Final decision

15. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because she had a right to appeal to a Tribunal, and it was reasonable for her to use that right.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman