London Borough of Barking & Dagenham (25 000 653)
Category : Education > Special educational needs
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 03 Jun 2025
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We cannot investigate Mrs Y’s complaint about the Council’s failure to name a school on her child’s Education, Health and Care Plan. This is because she has used her right of appeal to a tribunal about the same matter.
The complaint
- Mrs Y complains the Council refused to name her parental preference in Section I of her child, Child B’s Education, Health and Care Plan (EHC Plan).
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
- 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)
- 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.
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mrs Y would like Child B to attend a mainstream setting that has Additional Resource Provisions (ARP) for a limited number of students who are autistic. Mrs Y complains the Council refused to name one of her preferred schools with ARP in Child B’s EHC Plan.
- I cannot investigate Mrs Y’s complaint about the Council’s failure to name a school in her child’s EHC Plan. Mrs Y has appealed this decision to the SEND Tribunal, placing it outside of our jurisdiction.
Final decision
- We cannot investigate Mrs Y’s complaint about the Council’s failure to name a school on her child’s Education, Health and Care Plan. This is because she has used her right of appeal to a tribunal about the same matter.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman