Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council has dealt with the annual review or Mrs X’s son’s Education Health and Care Plan. This is because any fault has not caused a significant injustice and because she has used her right of appeal to the SEND Tribunal.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains about how the council has managed her son, Z’s, education over the last seven years. She says Z’s Education Health and Care (EHC) Plan is incomplete and he is still awaiting a placement.

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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 impact 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 or continue an investigation if we decide any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
3. 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)
4. 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.

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. I will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about how the Council has dealt with Z’s education going back seven years as these matters are raised late and I see no good reason why they could not have been raised with the Ombudsman sooner. For this reason I will only address the issues Mrs X raised in her recent complaint to the Council.
8. An annual review of Z’s EHC Plan was held in June 2024 and Mrs X complained shortly after that the Council had failed to issue an amended final plan and failed to name a new placement for Z. The Council issued a final plan in September naming a type of school and this led to Mrs X using her right of appeal against the contented of the EHC Plan to the SEND Tribunal. The Council issued a further final amended plan naming a school in October.
9. I will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint. Whilst there was a delay in issuing a final EHC Plan following the annual review, the delay was only around a week outside of the 12-week deadline. Whilst this may have meant a short delay in Mrs X being able to appeal to the SEND Tribunal, I do not consider this alone amounts to a significant enough injustice to warrant investigation.
10. I cannot investigate the Council’s decision to name a type of school the EHC Plan issued in September or its decision to name the school in the EHC Plan issued in November. This is because Mrs X has used her right of appeal to the SEND Tribunal about these decisions. I cannot investigate the education provision in place for Z whilst this appeal is ongoing as it is not separable from the appeal itself.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because any fault has not caused a significant injustice and because she has used her right of appeal to the SEND Tribunal.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman