Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of Ms X’s son’s education. Some of the complaint is late, but there is also not enough evidence of fault by the Council. The law limits our powers to investigate complaints about what happens in schools. If Ms X wants specific support in place for her son, then there is a right of appeal to a statutory tribunal.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Ms X, complained about the Council’s handling of her son’s education. Ms X’s son (Y) has an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHC Plan). Ms X says the Council has been ‘absent’ from her son’s case for several years and has delayed funding for supporting Y when he is in school.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. 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)
4. We cannot investigate complaints about what happens in schools unless it relates to special educational needs, when the schools are acting on behalf of the council to secure educational provision as set out in Section F of the young person’s Education, Health and Care Plan.
5. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone has a right of appeal, reference or review to a tribunal about the same matter. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to use this right. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)
6. 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.
7. 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 there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
8. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

9. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
10. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

11. The Council has responded to Ms X’s complaint. It referred to the information it previously gave to Y’s school, dating to 2021. It apologised for not following this up and a lack of communication. It set out the work done by Y’s latest case officer.
12. While I understand Ms X’s concerns, we will not start an investigation into her complaint.
13. We expect people to complain to us within 12 months of them becoming aware of a problem. We look at each case individually but will not look at late complaints unless there is a good reason the complaint was not made sooner. Ms X refers to problems going back “several” years. Some of the complaint is therefore late and we will not consider these historic issues.
14. We also have only limited powers to investigate what happens when children are in school. We have no powers to investigate the actions of Y’s school unless it is about provision in Y’s EHC Plan which is not being delivered. I have not seen any evidence of this. If Ms X thinks Y requires specific support, then she should raise it during a review of Y’s EHC Plan. If the Council was to refuse to include it in the EHC Plan, then Ms X would have a right of appeal to the SEND Tribunal.
15. Where the complaint is not outside our jurisdiction, from the evidence I have seen, there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council for the Ombudsman to become involved. If Ms X has specific examples of provision not being delivered, she should send the Council details.

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Final decision

16. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint. Some of it is late, we cannot look at what happens in schools, and there is a right of appeal should Ms X want specific provision adding to her son’s EHC Plan. There is not enough evidence of fault in the rest of the complaint.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman