Summary: We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint about the school setting named in his child’s Education, Health and Care Plan. This is because Mr X has used his right of appeal to the First-tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability) about the same matter.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains, in February 2025, the Council issued a final Education, Health and Care Plan (EHC Plan) for his child that went against a previous SEND Tribunal decision. Mr X says the Council failed to name a specific school in Section I that the Tribunal had ordered it to name.
2. Mr X complains about the Council’s handling of his complaint. He says it wrongly refused to consider it because of legal proceedings he had started.

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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. We cannot investigate a complaint if someone has appealed to a tribunal or a government minister or started court action about the matter. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6), as amended)
5. 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.
6. 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 further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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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. We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint that, in February 2025, the Council issued a final EHC Plan for his child that went against a previous SEND Tribunal decision. This is because Mr X has already used his right of appeal to the SEND Tribunal about the Council’s decision not to name a specific school in the Plan. Where someone has appealed to a Tribunal about a matter, the law says the Ombudsman cannot investigate the same matter.
10. Mr X says he spent over £2,300 in legal fees to help with the appeal and connected legal action. We have no powers to instruct the Council to reimburse legal fees in the way the courts can. There are no fees for making an appeal. Rather, it was Mr X’s choice whether or not to instruct a solicitor. We will not investigate this part of Mr X’s complaint because we cannot achieve the outcome he is seeking.
11. It is not proportionate for us to consider Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s complaint handling alone when we are not investigating the substantive part of the complaint.

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Final decision

12. We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint about the school setting named in his child’s Education, Health and Care Plan. This is because Mr X has used his right of appeal to the First-tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability) about the same matter.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman