Leeds City Council (26 008 775)
Category : Education > Special educational needs
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 05 Jul 2026
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate X’s complaint about how the Council dealt with their son’s education provision. This is because it is made late and I see no good reason to exercise discretion and consider it now.
The complaint
- X complains that the Council failed to provide suitable full-time education for their child. X says they escalated their complaint in January 2025, but the Council failed to respond.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
- The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint unless we are satisfied the organisation knows about the complaint and has had an opportunity to investigate and reply. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to notify the organisation of the complaint and give it an opportunity to investigate and reply. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(5), section 34(B)6)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- X complained to the Council in late 2024, and it provided a response at stage two of its three-stage complaints process. X says they escalated their complaint to stage three in January 2025 but did not receive a response.
- I will not investigate X’s complaint about how the Council dealt with their child’s education prior to their complaint in late 2024. This is because this complaint is made late and I see no good reason why X could not have complained sooner.
- I will not investigate the Council’s recent involvement in X’s child’s education. X will first need to raise this as a new complaint with the Council and can raise a new complaint with the Ombudsman once they have exhausted that procedure.
- It is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures if we are unable to deal with the substantive issue.
Final decision
- We will not investigate X’s complaint because it is made late.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman