Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of her daughter’s education. It was reasonable for Mrs X to appeal to the Tribunal if she wanted to challenge the Council’s decision not to issue her daughter with an Education, Health and Care Plan. The rest of Mrs X’s complaint has either already been considered by the Ombudsman or needs to be raised as a fresh complaint if it has completed the Council’s process.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Mrs X, complained the Council has refused to issue her daughter with an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHC Plan). Mrs X also says the Council has failed to provide her daughter with suitable alternative education. Mrs X is unhappy the Council has not carried out welfare checks while her daughter is out of education and considers this to be a safeguarding issue.

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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. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone has, or had, a right of appeal, reference or review to a tribunal about the same matter. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it was / would be unreasonable to expect the person to use this right. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)
4. 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.
5. 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)
6. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint unless we are satisfied the organisation knows about the complaint and has had an opportunity to investigate and reply. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to notify the organisation of the complaint and give it an opportunity to investigate and reply. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(5), section 34(B)6)

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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 will not start an investigation into Mrs X’s complaint.
10. Mrs X is unhappy the Council has decided not to issue her daughter, who is 17, with an EHC Plan. Parents who want to challenge such a decision have a right of appeal to the Tribunal. It was reasonable for Mrs X to use her right of appeal as the Tribunal could give Mrs X the outcome she wants. An investigation by the Ombudsman could not. An investigation is not therefore appropriate.
11. We have already considered Mrs X’s complaint about an alleged failure by the Council to provide her daughter with a suitable education. We found no fault by the Council and will not consider the same matter again. Any concerns about the education provided before Mrs X’s daughter left school are late.
12. Mrs X is also unhappy the Council has not carried out welfare checks while her daughter is out of education. This matter was not part of Mrs X’s recent complaint to the Ombudsman, and it is not clear if this has now completed the Council’s complaints process. If it has, and Mrs X is unhappy with the Council’s response, she can make a fresh complaint to the Ombudsman. We could then decide whether to investigate.

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Final decision

13. We will not investigate this complaint because it was reasonable for Mrs X to use her appeal rights, we will not consider the same matter more than once, and part of the complaint needs to be raised as a fresh issue.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman