Medway Council (24 011 134)
Category : Education > Special educational needs
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 08 Nov 2024
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about her child’s education. Miss X has appealed to a tribunal which places the complaint outside our jurisdiction.
The complaint
- The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Miss X, complained the Council has named an unsuitable school in her son’s Education, Health and Care Plan. Miss X says this means her son is out of school.
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 SEND Tribunal in this decision statement.
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- We will not start an investigation into Miss X’s complaint.
- It is not for us to take a view on whether the content of an EHC Plan is appropriate. This matter carries a right of appeal to the SEND Tribunal. This is the proper route by which to challenge the school named in an EHC Plan. Miss X has used this right.
- Where appeal rights have been used, the matter is outside our jurisdiction from the point at which the appeal rights were available. The education offered to Miss X’s son is directly linked to the matter appealed and so is not something we can consider. There is no discretion available to us to consider Miss X’s complaint.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because it is outside our jurisdiction.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman