Summary: We cannot investigate Mrs X’s complaint about her child’s Education, Health and Care Plan because she has appealed to the Tribunal.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains the Council:
• reduced the provision and support included in her child's Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan when it issued the final amended plan.
• failed to secure the provision set out in Section F of the EHC plan.
• failed to provide alternative education when her child was attending school.
• named an unsuitable setting in the EHC Plan.
• failed to properly respond to her complaints.

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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. 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.
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)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by Mrs X and the Council.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. In September 2025, the Council issued a final Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan naming a mainstream school. Mrs X says the school was unsuitable and could not meet her child’s needs. She also says the Council reduced the provision in Section F of the EHC plan. Mrs X appealed to the SEND Tribunal.
8. We cannot investigate Mrs X’s complaint. The courts have established that if someone has appealed to the Tribunal, 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)
9. Mrs X complains the Council has failed to secure the provision in Section F of the EHC plan. However, the provision she says the Council failed to secure is also disputed as part of her Tribunal appeal. We therefore cannot investigate this matter because it is closely linked to the matters the Tribunal is considering.
10. Mrs X also complains the Council failed to provide alternative education when her child could not attend school. Mrs X has appealed the suitability of the school named in the EHC plan. We therefore cannot investigate this matter because it is closely linked to her Tribunal appeal.
11. In any event, the evidence shows the Council provided tuition while Mrs X’s child could not attend school. Therefore, there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council to justify further investigation.
12. Mrs X is also unhappy about the way the Council responded to her complaints. We will not investigate this because it is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaint handling when we are not looking at the substantive issues.

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Final decision

13. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because the matters she complains about are connected to her appeal to the Tribunal.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman