Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint that the Council failed to identify his child’s Special Educational Needs. This is because Mr X has used his right of appeal against the Council’s recent decision not to carry out an Education Health and Care needs assessment and because historic matters are raised late.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains that the Council has failed to identify his daughter Z’s Special Educational Needs (SEN) going back several years. He says the Council has failed to act on professional advice and relied on inaccurate and outdated information instead of arranging proper assessments.

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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 – SEND) considers appeals against council decisions regarding special educational needs. We refer to it as the Tribunal in this decision statement.
5. 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

6. I considered information provided by the complainant.
7. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

8. Requests for Education Health and Care (EHC) needs assessments for Z were made in 2019, 2020 and 2025. On each occasion the requests were refused by the Council. Mr X has used his right of appeal to the SEND Tribunal about the Council’s recent decision.
9. I will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about matters relating to the historic decisions by the Council concerning Z’s SEN. This is because these matters happened too long ago and I see no good reason why Mr X could not have complained sooner.
10. I cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s recent decision not to carry out an EHC needs assessment. This is because he has used his right of appeal against this decision to the SEND Tribunal. Mr X’s concerns about the information used in making this decision can be raised as part of these proceedings.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because he has used his right of appeal to the SEND Tribunal and because other matters are raised late.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman