Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of an Education, Health and Care Plan. This is because parts of the complaint are late, we cannot investigate matters that went to tribunal, and there is not enough evidence of fault to warrant investigation.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council:
1. Delayed finalising his son Y’s Education, Health and Care Plan (EHC Plan);
2. Did not refund him for the home education he had to provide Y when he could no longer attend school;
3. Put elective home education in Y’s EHC Plan when parents wanted Education Other than at School;
4. Had poor communication with Mr X throughout the process; and
5. There was no special educational needs coordinator (SENDCO) at Y’s previous school.
2. The Council declined to consider part of the complaint as it related to something which happened more than 12 months ago. Mr X would like the Ombudsman to investigate these issues.

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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 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)
5. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone has a right of appeal, reference or review to a tribunal about the same matter. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to use this right. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)
6. 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.
7. We cannot investigate most complaints about what happens in schools. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5, paragraph 5(2), as amended)
8. 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:
• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants, or
• there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

9. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council, as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
10. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

11. Mr X complains the Council delayed issuing his child’s EHC Plan by eight months. The final EHC Plan was issued in February 2024. This complaint is late and there is no good reason for us to investigate this now.
12. Mr X also complains he had to pay for his child’s education at home from July 2022. The Council has explained it did not agree to his child needing education other than at school until October 2024. This complaint is also late. The Council was not responsible for funding the education at home prior to October 2024, so it is unlikely we would find fault here even if we were to investigate this issue.
13. Mr X’s child was attending a mainstream school before July 2022 and Mr X made various complaints about the school. We cannot investigate these issues as they do not concern the actions of the Council.
14. Mr X said communication from the Council was poor. His case worker went on maternity leave and work was not passed on to anyone else, and his request for mediation was ignored.
15. The Council upheld his complaint about its communication and said it would look into what measures will be taken to ensure staff members prepare effective handovers in the event of foreseeable absence. It is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about communication and contact, if we are unable to deal with the substantive issues. The Council has made efforts to remedy this and we could not likely achieve more..
16. Any delay from when Mr X appealed against the first EHC Plan to the date of the consent order, regardless of the reason, is about the tribunal hearings, so we cannot investigate it. After the Tribunal decision the Council set up a personal budget for the academic year 2024 – 2025 so there is not enough evidence of fault to warrant an investigation.

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Final decision

17. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because part of the complaint is late, we cannot investigate matters that went to tribunal, and there is not enough evidence of fault to warrant investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman