Summary: We cannot investigate Miss X’s complaint about the Council’s actions following its refusal to carry out an Education, Health and Care reassessment. This is because she has used her right of appeal to a tribunal. Other issues raised have not caused Miss X a significant enough injustice to justify investigating.

The complaint

1. Miss X’s child, Z, has an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHC Plan).
2. Miss X complains about the Council’s handling of Z’s EHC Plan. She is unhappy the Council refused her request to reassess Z’s needs. She says the Council unfairly decided Z's needs had not changed, without providing details of the evidence it relied on when reaching its decision. Also, Miss X complains the Council unfairly decided her child did not meet the criteria to be placed in a specialist setting for children with mild to moderate special educational needs. She says the Council unfairly refused to fund alternative provision when the provision in place at Z’s school did not meet her child’s needs.
3. Miss X complains about delays in the mediation process.
4. Miss X complains about the Council’s complaint handling.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

5. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
6. 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)
7. The First-tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability) considers appeals against council decisions regarding special educational needs. We refer to it as the SEND Tribunal in this decision statement.
8. We will not usually investigate complaint handling if we are not investigating the rest of the complaint. This is because there is not usually enough injustice to justify us doing so. We collect information about particularly poor complaint handling practice and report this back to organisations. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), section 34B(8))

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How I considered this complaint

9. I considered information provided by the complainant.
10. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

11. The Council carried out an annual review of Miss X’s child’s EHC Plan.
12. Following this, Miss X asked the Council to carry out a reassessment of Z’s needs and consider the suitability of Z’s placement. She said the provision in place at Z’s school did not meet Z’s needs. Miss X wanted the Council to make amendments to the content of the plan and placement named.
13. In March 2026, the Council refused Miss X’s reassessment request. Miss X appealed this decision to the SEND Tribunal.
14. Miss X complained about how the Council dealt with matters during the appeal process. She says the Council delayed meeting with her to mediate.
15. I cannot investigate Miss X’s complaint because she has used her right to appeal to the SEND Tribunal. The law says we cannot investigate the decision not to carry out a reassessment when an appeal has been made about that decision. Miss X’s complaint about the suitability of Z’s placement and whether the provision specified in the Plan is sufficient overlaps with the role of the SEND Tribunal to decide whether the Council should reassess Z’s needs. The matter of whether the Council should have arranged alternative provision was linked to whether Z needed more support or a different type of school, which was the subject of the appeal to the SEND Tribunal.
16. The courts have established that if someone has appealed to the SEND Tribunal, we cannot investigate any matter which was part of, was connected to, or could have been part of, the appeal to the tribunal. I consider that this restriction applies in Miss X’s case.
17. Miss X has also complained about the Council’s complaint handling. It is not a good use of our resources to investigate the Council’s complaint handling alone when we cannot investigate the substantive matter. Any separable injustice to Miss X is not significant enough to justify an investigation. So, we will not investigate the Council’s complaint handling as a standalone matter.

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Final decision

18. We cannot investigate Miss X’s complaint the Council’s refused her reassessment request. This is because she has used her right of appeal to a tribunal. Other issues raised have not caused Miss X a significant enough injustice to justify investigating.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman