Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council allocated funding agreed in an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan. This complaint is late and there is no good reason to exercise discretion.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains the Council has paid money allocated for her son’s Education Health and Care (EHC) plan to a school he stopped attending and has not obtained a refund of this. She also complains the Council has not provided her with a detailed breakdown of how it spent her son’s EHC plan budget.

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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 investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact 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 or continue an investigation if we decide:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

5. We cannot investigate most complaints about what happens in schools. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5, paragraph 5(2), as amended)

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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. Miss X’s son has an EHC plan and in September 2023 he refused to attend the school named in the plan and eventually he began attending a different school. Miss X says the Council paid the school the agreed budget for her son’s provision, but she says this cannot have been used for him as he didn’t attend the school. She does not believe the Council got a refund as it says. She further complains the Council has failed to provide her with a breakdown of how the agreed budget was spent.
9. We cannot investigate Miss X’s complaint as it is more than 12 months old and there are no good reasons to exercise discretion and investigate it now.
10. Even if Miss X’s complaint was not late, we could not investigate her concerns. We cannot investigate complaints about what happens in school. This includes how the school manages its budgets. Nor is there a sufficient personal injustice to warrant investigation. While I appreciate that Miss X maybe concerned about wider issues around the level of education her son has received, this is not an injustice caused by the issues complained about.
11. When we find fault, we can recommend remedies for significant personal injustice or to prevent future injustice. Our role is not to get information, like detailed breakdowns of EHC plan spending, for the complainant from the Council.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because it is late and there is no good reason to exercise discretion.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman