Summary: We cannot investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the Council’s decision to refuse to carry out an Education Health and Care needs assessment for her child. This is because she has used her right of appeal to a tribunal.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains about the Council’s decision to refuse a request for an Education Health and Care (EHC) needs assessment for her child. Mrs X also complains that the Council delayed responding to her Subject Access Request (SAR) and about how it dealt with her complaints about these matters.

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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.
5. We normally expect someone to refer the matter to the Information Commissioner if they have a complaint about data protection. However, we may decide to investigate if we think there are good reasons. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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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. I cannot investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the Council’s refusal to carry out an EHC needs assessment for her child. This is because she has used her right of appeal against this decision to the SEND Tribunal.
9. I will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about how the Council dealt with her SAR. The ICO is better placed to consider this matter.
10. Finally, I will not investigate how the Council dealt with Mrs X’s complaints about these matters. It is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures, if we are unable to deal with the substantive issue.

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Final decision

11. We cannot investigate Mrs X’s complaint because she has used her right of appeal to a tribunal

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman