Summary: We cannot investigate part of Miss X’s complaint about how the Council secured the content of her child’s Education, Health and Care Plan or her complaint about alternative provision because she appealed to a tribunal, and the law says we cannot investigate. We cannot investigate matters relating to her safeguarding concerns about a school because the matters relate to the internal management of a school. We will not investigate the Council’s complaint handling or overview of the concerns because the tests in our Assessment Code are not met.

The complaint

1. Miss X complained the Council failed to:
1. secure the content of her child, Y’s, Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan;
2. provide alternative education to Y when Miss X withdrew him from the school due to her perceived safeguarding concerns relating to the placement;
3. investigate her safeguarding concerns about the school; and
4. provide a clear stage two complaint response signposting to the Ombudsman.
2. Miss X also raised concerns about the school including the safeguarding concerns she raised and what she viewed as inaccurate records on its systems.
3. Miss X said the matters caused her distress and frustration.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
5. We cannot investigate most complaints about what happens in schools. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5, paragraph 5(2), as amended)
6. 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.
7. 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)
8. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse effect 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 an investigation if we decide the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

9. I considered information provided by the complainant.
10. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

Secure the content of her child, Y’s, Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan and provide alternative education to Y

11. We cannot investigate these complaints.
12. 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)
13. 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. This is the case here.

Investigate her safeguarding concerns about the school

14. Miss X wanted the Council to conduct an independent investigation into the safeguarding concerns she had regarding Y’s school and an incident she said took place in September 2025.
15. The Council’s Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) had oversight of the concerns. The LADO is a person responsible for managing and overseeing investigations into allegations that somebody who works with children has behaved in a way that may pose a risk to children.
16. However, the LADO does not conduct primary investigations. The primary investigation is conducted by the employer; in this case, Y’s school.
17. There is insufficient evidence of fault in the Council’s LADO process to warrant an investigation by the Ombudsman.
18. The primary issues Miss X complained about relate to safeguarding concerns at the school. The safeguarding concerns are for the school to manage. It is open to Miss X to complain directly to the school about these matters and to raise them with the board of governors.

Provide a clear stage two complaint response signposting to the Ombudsman

19. It is not good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures if we are unable to deal with the substantive issue, unless there is evidence of significant personal injustice arising from the complaint handling itself. There is no evidence of that here; therefore, we will not investigate.

Concerns about the school including the safeguarding concerns she raised and what she viewed as inaccurate records on its systems

20. We cannot investigate these matters. This is because the issues complained about relate to the internal management of the school, and the law says we cannot investigate.

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Final decision

21. We cannot investigate part of Miss X’s complaint because she appealed to a tribunal. We cannot investigate part because the matters relate to the internal management of a school. We will not investigate the remainder because the tests in our Assessment Code are not met.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman