Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of her child’s Education, Health and Care Plan. Miss X appealed to a tribunal which places much of the complaint outside our jurisdiction. There is no worthwhile outcome we could achieve by looking at the rest of Miss X’s complaint.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Miss X, complained about the Council’s handling of her child’s Education, Health and Care Plan (EHC Plan). Miss X says the Council was slow to send her the EHC Plan and she disagreed with the school named. Miss X is unhappy with how the Council decided the school named and says communication was poor.

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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 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
• there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

4. 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)
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.

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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. Miss X asked the Council to issue her child with an EHC Plan. The Council issued the EHC Plan on 11 June 2024 – but Miss X did not receive the EHC Plan until 14 August 2024. Miss X was unhappy with the content of the EHC Plan and submitted a late appeal to the Tribunal in September. Miss X also complained to the Council about what had happened. In its response to Miss X the Council:
• Said it had posted the EHC Plan, but accepted Miss X had not received it. The Council apologised and said officers had been reminded of the need to send EHC Plans electronically if possible.
• Accepted the above had delayed Miss X’s right of appeal.
• Upheld Miss X’s complaint about poor communication. The Council noted Miss X was unhappy with the content of her child’s EHC Plan and that she had appealed to the Tribunal.
9. While I understand Miss X’s frustrations, we will not start an investigation into her complaint.
10. The Council has accepted it did not email Miss X a copy of the EHC Plan and it has upheld her complaint about poor communication. Further consideration of these points would be unlikely to achieve anything more. It is unlikely that we could add anything to the Council’s response.
11. Miss X also exercised her right of appeal against the content of her child’s EHC Plan. Once a parent has appealed to the Tribunal, it means we have no powers to consider the matter appealed or any closely related points. This means we cannot consider the school named or how the Council decided the content of the EHC Plan. We also cannot consider any missed education linked to the appeal. I note the Council conceded the appeal and named Miss X’s preferred setting from April 2025.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint. An appeal to the Tribunal places much of the complaint outside our jurisdiction and there is no worthwhile outcome from considering the rest of the complaint.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman