Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the Council’s refusal to carry out an Education, Health and Care needs assessment for her child. This is because Mrs X used her right to appeal to the First-tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability).

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains the Council wrongly refused to carry out an Education, Health and Care (EHC) needs assessment for her child. She also complains the Council failed to properly consider a later request for an assessment.

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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. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

8. In April 2025, Mrs X asked the Council to carry out an EHC needs assessment for her child. The Council refused her request.
9. Parents who are unhappy with a council’s decision not to carry out an EHC needs assessment have a right of appeal to the Tribunal. It is the mechanism set up by Parliament for parents to challenge such decisions.
10. Mrs X appealed to the Tribunal.
11. In October 2025, Mrs X made a further request to the Council to carry out an EHC needs assessment for her child. She says the Council failed to seek updated advice, properly reconsider her request or issue a fresh right of appeal..
12. The Council has agreed to remind staff of the importance of seeking additional information, even where there is an appeal to the Tribunal.
13. Mrs X has used her right of appeal to the Tribunal. Her later request for an EHC needs assessment is too closely connected to that appeal. We cannot investigate the complaint.

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Final decision

14. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because she has used her right to appeal to the First-tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability). This means we cannot investigate the complaint because the matter is too closely connected to the appeal.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman