Summary: We will not investigate this complaint that the Council is at fault in failing to make suitable alternative educational provision for the complainant’s son. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault on the Council’s part to warrant investigation.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mrs X, complains that the Council has failed to make suitable alternative educational provision for her son while he has been unable to attend school.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse effect on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start an investigation if we decide the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Mrs X says her son cannot attend school due to anxiety and unmet special educational needs. Although he remains on roll at a school, she says he has not attended since October 2023. Mrs X argues that, as her son cannot attend school, the Council’s duty under section 19 of the Education Act 1996 to make alternative provision for him is engaged.
6. Mrs X says she has arranged alternative provision for her son herself. She wants the Council to accept its section 19 duty and make provision, and to reimburse her for the cost of the provision she has arranged.
7. The correspondence Mrs X has provided shows that the Council does not believe there is evidence to demonstrate that her son cannot attend school and access the education offer available to him. As such, it does not agree that its section 19 duty is engaged, and it regards Mrs X’s son’s absence from school as an attendance matter.
8. The Ombudsman will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault on the Council’s part to warrant our intervention. Mrs X disagrees with the Council’s decision that the section 19 duty does not apply in her son’s case. But that does not mean it amounts to fault.
9. Whether the section 19 duty applies in individual cases is a matter for the professional judgement of the Council’s officers. Without evidence of fault in the way that judgement is applied, the Ombudsman cannot intervene. The Council has properly set out its decision in this case and there is no evidence of fault in the way it was made. In these circumstances, we cannot criticise the merits of the decision or intervene to substitute an alternative view.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault on the Council’s part.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman