London Borough of Bromley (26 015 574)
Category : Education > Special educational needs
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 14 Sep 2026
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We cannot investigate this complaint about the conduct of the Council during the SEND Tribunal appeals process. This is because the law prevents us from investigating matters which the SEND Tribunal can address.
The complaint
- X complains about the conduct of officers during their appeal to the SEND Tribunal. X also complains about the Council's handling of their complaint.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
- 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)
- 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.
- 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)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- I cannot investigate X’s complaint. This is because X has appealed to the SEND Tribunal. This places the matter outside our jurisdiction. This includes the conduct of officers during the appeal process and the evidence or information the Council provided to the Tribunal.
- I will not investigate how the Council dealt with X’s complaint. 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 cannot investigate X’s complaint because the law prevents us from investigating matters which the SEND Tribunal can address.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman