Summary: We cannot investigate this complaint about education provision and therapies as it cannot be separated from a Tribunal appeal.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains the Council has named a school in her son’s Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan that cannot meet his needs and he is not in receipt of the education and therapy provision outlined in his EHC Plan. Mrs X is also unhappy about the way the Council responded to her 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 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.

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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 August 2025 the Council issued a final EHC Plan naming School Y. Mrs X says School Y cannot provide the provision and Occupational Therapy (OT) as outlined in Section F of his EHC Plan. Mrs X has appealed the named school and the provision to the Tribunal.
8. We cannot investigate Mrs X’s complaint. The courts have established that if someone has appealed to the Tribunal, the law says we cannot investigate any matter which was part of, was connected to, or could have been part of, the appeal to the Tribunal. (R (on application of Milburn) v Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman [2023] EWCA Civ 207)
9. This means that if a child or young person is not attending school, and we decide the reason for non-attendance is linked to, or is a consequence of, a parent or young person’s disagreement about the special educational provision or the educational placement in the EHC Plan, we cannot investigate a lack of special educational provision, or alternative educational provision.
10. Mrs X is also unhappy about the way the Council responded to her complaints. We will also not investigate how the Council dealt with Mrs X’s complaint as it is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint handling when we are not looking at the substantive issue.

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Final decision

11. We cannot investigate Mrs X’s complaint because it is not separable from her Tribunal appeal.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman