Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s actions relating to Mr X’s education and his Statement of Special Educational Needs. Mr X’s concerns are historic and could have been raised earlier. It would not now be possible to carry out a robust investigation with any meaningful outcomes.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Mr X, complained the Council failed to annually review his Statement of Special Educational Needs. Mr X also complains the Council failed to transfer his Statement to an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHC Plan) by the deadline of 01 April 2018. Mr X says the Council’s failings mean he missed out on support. Mr X is unhappy the Council has refused to investigate his complaint.

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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 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)
4. 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 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

5. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. In response to Mr X’s complaint, the Council said it issued his final Statement in 2012. The Council said that is the last record it has for him. The Council said that due to the time which has elapsed it would not be possible for it to carry out a thorough and fair investigation into what happened.
8. While I do understand Mr X’s concerns, we will not start an investigation into his complaint.
9. We generally expect people to complain to us within a year of them becoming aware of a problem. We can, however, investigate matters that happened more than a year before. For example, if a person was unaware of those matters at the time they happened, or if they could not complain to us sooner. We look at each complaint individually and on its merits.
10. Mr X’s complaint is about what happened from 2012 onwards. While we would not expect Mr X to have complained at the time, those caring for him could have done. They could have raised with the Council any concerns about his final statement or lack of subsequent reviews. Mr X’s concerns about his Statement not being converted to an EHC Plan would only apply if the Council was still maintaining a Statement for Mr X in 2018. It is not clear that was the case, but again, that is something which could have been raised at the time.
11. Even if we were to say Mr X’s complaint is not late, we need to consider if we could effectively investigate and what we could achieve. The Council issued Mr X’s last statement 14 years ago. It is unlikely that if we investigated, we could now carry out a robust investigation. Even if we could establish what happened, we could never say what the Council would have included in Statements or EHC Plans dating back to 2012. We could not therefore say exactly what provision Mr X has missed out on or recommend appropriate remedies. An investigation by the Ombudsman would not therefore lead to worthwhile outcomes and so we will not investigate.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it relates to historic matters. These could have been raised earlier, and even if we looked at the case now, we could not properly investigate or achieve any worthwhile outcomes.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman