Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the content of an Education Health and Care Plan. This is because Mr X has used his right of appeal. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about delay in issuing the Education Health and Care needs assessment as any injustice this caused is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about the content of his daughter's Education Health and Care Plan. He also complains of delay issuing the plan and about complaint handling.

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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 a complaint if someone has appealed to a tribunal about the same matter. We also cannot investigate a complaint if in doing so we would overlap with the role of a tribunal to decide something which has been or could have been referred to it to resolve using its own powers. (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 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 any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B)).

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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. Mr X complains about the content of the Education Health and Care Plan. He says it does not consider professional assessments, and it does not include the right level of provision.
9. I will not consider this complaint because Mr X exercised his right of appeal to the Tribunal.
10. Mr X complains the Council delayed in issuing the Education Health and Care needs assessment by 13 days. Our role is to consider complaints where the person bringing the complaint has suffered significant personal injustice as a direct result of the actions or inactions of the organisation. I consider any injustice caused by this delay is not significant enough to justify an investigation by the Ombudsman.
11. I will not consider Mr X’s complaint about complaint handling. It is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint handling when we are not investigating the substantive matter.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because he has used his right of appeal. Mr X has not suffered significant injustice in relation to the remaining issues complained about.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman