Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of her child’s Education, Health and Care Plan. This is because Mrs X has used her right of appeal to the Tribunal and the law says we cannot investigate these matters.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains the Council delayed dealing with her child’s (Y) EHC plan and consulting schools. She says it failed to properly consider evidence about his needs, wrongly decided a mainstream school could meet them and has not found him a suitable school place.

Back to top

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).

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

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

Back to top

My assessment

8. In October 2025, the Council issued Y with an EHC plan. Mrs X complained to the Council. She says the Council delayed in replying to her emails and did not consult settings despite confirming it had. She asked the Council to change the type of her child’s education setting.
9. Parents who are unhappy with the setting named in an EHC plan 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 has used her right of appeal to the Tribunal. This means we cannot investigate the complaint. Mrs X can ask the Tribunal to consider the issues she has raised about Y’s needs and educational setting.
11. Mrs X is also unhappy with the Council’s communication. But it is not a good use of public resources to look at the Council’s communication, if we are not going to look at the substantive issue complained about. We will not therefore investigate this issue separately.

Back to top

Final decision

12. We cannot investigate Mrs X’s complaint because she has used her right of appeal to the Tribunal and the law says we cannot investigate these matters.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman