Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of her child’s Education, Health and Care Plan. Ms X has already appealed to the Tribunal, and other parts of the complaint are late without good reason.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains about the content and administration of her child’s Education Health and Care (EHC) Plan. She says the Council delayed the annual review of the plan, and the latest plan did not consider key evidence and information. Ms X says the Council’s actions have resulted in her child struggling in a school which does not meet their needs. Ms X wants the Council to review the EHC Plan and comply with the orders of the Tribunal.

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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. In R (on application of Milburn) v Local Govt and Social Care Ombudsman & Anr [2023] EWCA Civ 207 the Court said s26(6)(a) of the Local Government Act prevents us from investigating a matter which forms the “main subject or substance” of an appeal to the Tribunal and also “those ancillary matters that may fall to be decided by the Tribunal… such as procedural failings or conduct which is said to be in breach of the [Tribunal] Rules, practice directions or directions or that is said to be unreasonable…”.
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.
6. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

7. I considered information provided by Ms X.
8. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

9. Ms X’s child is of primary school age. In February 2025, the Council issued a final EHC plan. Ms X was unhappy with the school named in the plan and says the plan was the unsuitable result of several procedural failings by the Council.
10. Parents who want to challenge the content of an EHC Plan have a right of appeal to the Tribunal. Ms X exercised that right in July 2025 and the hearing is pending. So, the restrictions in paragraphs three and four apply and we cannot investigate this complaint.
11. Ms X also complains about earlier faults in the Council’s handling of the EHC plan. Ms X says the Council should have done an annual review in May 2024, but the Council only told her the result of the review in October 2024. Ms X complained to us in November 2025, 18 months after the delay began. We will not investigate this part of the complaint because the restriction in paragraph six applies, and it would have reasonable for Ms X to have brought a complaint sooner.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because she has already used her right to appeal, and the other part of the complaint is late without good reason.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman