Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the education provision in place for her child. This is because she used her right of appeal to the SEND Tribunal and because part of her complaint is made late.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains that the Council failed to provide suitable education provision for her child from June 2023 until January 2025.

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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 - SEND) considers appeals against council decisions regarding special educational needs. We refer to it as the Tribunal in this decision statement.

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

8. Mrs X says her child stopped attending school in June 2023 due to unmet needs. She says that the Council issued a final Education Health and Care (EHC) Plan in Summer 2024, that named a school that could not meet her child’s needs.
9. I cannot investigate Mrs X’s complaint about her child’s education provision going back to June 2023 because this element of her complaint is made late and I see no good reason why she could not have contacted the Ombudsman sooner.
10. I cannot investigate the contents of the final EHC Plan, including the school named. This is because Mrs X used her right of appeal against the contents of the plan to the SEND Tribunal. I also cannot investigate the education provision in place whilst the appeal was being considered, because it is not separable from the appeal itself.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because she used her right of appeal to the SEND Tribunal and because part of her complaint is made late.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman