Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the education offered to Mrs X’s child between April 2023 and July 2024. The complaint about the period before May 2024 is late, and there is no good reason to exercise discretion to investigate it now. Mrs X had already declined an offer of education at home, and the potential injustice caused by inadequate provision on days after May 2024 when the child attended the named school is limited. Investigation by us of these limited matters in a short period would be unlikely to lead to any worthwhile outcome.

The complaint

1. Mrs X said the Council failed to provide a suitable education for her child between April 2023 and July 2024. She said he self-harmed as his anxiety was worsened by the inadequate provision.

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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 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. Most of the period complained of concerns late matters. For a matter older than 12 months when the person approaches us to be late, the person complaining must first have been aware of it at the time. In this case, Mrs X was aware of the alleged loss of educational provision. So, most of the complaint is late.
9. Even so, we may exercise discretion to investigate late matters if a person could not have complained sooner. In this case, Mrs X approached us in October 2025. Normally, we would only consider matters since October 2024. However, that assumes the Council did not delay completing its complaint procedure. We regard a maximum of three months as reasonable for that. In this case, the Council took eight months. Therefore, it is reasonable for us to exercise discretion to go back five months further than we would otherwise do. That means we can consider matters since May 2024. But that is a short period.
10. Mrs X also appealed to the Tribunal to change her child’s school placement, with the Council conceding her appeal at the end of June 2024. That means we cannot consider what education the Council provided on any days between mid-May and late June 2024 when the child did not attend the school the Council had named and which Mrs X had appealed against to the Tribunal. In the event of a Tribunal ordering a different school setting, there is also a period of five school weeks for the Council to arrange the placement. It is therefore reasonable to assume that any educational offer for the final three or four weeks of the school year ending in July 2024 would have been at the same setting as the Council; had previously named.
11. We can, however, consider what education was provided on days between mid-May and late July 2024 when the child attended the named school. The child was reportedly only able to cope in the SEND base at the school, and could not go to classrooms due to anxiety. In such circumstances, as when a child receives home tuition, it is not possible to replicate exactly what would be on offer in the classroom to meet the child’s SEN and general educational needs. That is particularly so in subjects requiring specialist equipment, group work, or particular technical teaching knowledge. And it is also more difficult later in the secondary stage and where a child is academically able. Thus, investigation by us of the quality of provision offered to Mrs X’s child on selected days at the named school in a period of about eight weeks is unlikely to result in robust conclusions about how much education was missed and how much injustice that may have caused.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because most of the matters complained of are late, and there is no good reason to exercise discretion to consider them now. Where we have exercised that discretion the final period covered by the complaint, investigation by us would be unlikely to lead to any worthwhile outcome.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman