Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint that the Council failed to meet the provision detailed in his child’s Education Health and Care (EHC) plan. This is because doing so would not add to the investigation carried out by the Council.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains that the Council failed to secure Special Educational Needs (SEN) provision for his son, meaning he missed two terms of school. Mr X says the Council’s actions impacted his son’s education, caused the family distress and that the Council delayed dealing with his complaint about this matter.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact 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 or continue an investigation if we decide we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. In responding to Mr X’s complaint, the Council accepted that it had delayed considering a funding request from his son’s school meaning provision was not put in place and this meant Mr X’s son could not access full time education between January and July 2025.
6. The Council apologised to Mr X. It said the delay was due to human error and outlined the steps it had taken to prevent this happening again. It offered to make a payment to Mr X totalling £2700 to remedy the injustice caused by the missed education provision and poor complaint handling.
7. I will not investigate Mr X’s complaint. This is because doing so would not add to the investigation carried out by the Council. It has apologised, taken appropriate steps to prevent the same issues occurring and offered a payment to remedy the injustice caused. These actions are in line with our guidance on remedies.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because doing so would not add to the investigation carried out by the Council.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman