Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about matters concerning her son’s education. This is because her complaint is made late and I see no good reason why it could not have been made sooner.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains about how the Council and a school dealt with matters concerning her son, Mr Y’s, education and Special Educational Needs (SEN).

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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 complaints about what happens in schools unless they relate to special educational needs when the schools are acting on behalf of the council to secure educational provision as set out in Section F of the young person’s Education, Health and Care Plan.

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by the complainant.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. I will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about how the Council handled matters relating to Mr Y’s education and SEN. This is because her complaint is late. The issues she has raised are about things that happened between 2011 and 2020, and I see no good reason why she could not have complained to the Ombudsman sooner.
8. There are elements of Ms X’s complaint that we could not investigate, even if she had complained sooner. We have no jurisdiction to investigate what happens in schools unless it relates to SEN. Therefore, we could not investigate the school’s failure to make reasonable adjustments for Ms X during parents’ evenings or an incident where Mr Y fell over in the school playground.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because it is made late.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman