Summary: We cannot investigate Mrs X’s complaint that the Council failed to arrange a suitable school placement or alternative educational provision for her child. This is because these matters overlap with a SEND Tribunal appeal about her child’s Education, Health and Care Plan.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains the Council:
1. delayed consulting the parents’ preferred school and instructing the school to accept Child B;
2. failed to arrange a suitable school placement for Child B or provide alternative provision for the 2023/24 academic year; and,
3. failed to provide evidence or appear at a scheduled SEND Tribunal hearing.

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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 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)
5. 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.
6. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we think the issues could reasonably be, or have been mentioned as part of the legal proceedings regarding a closely related matter. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 24A(6) and 34B(8), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

7. I considered information provided by the complainant.
8. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

9. Mrs X complains that the Council delayed consulting the parents’ preferred school during the Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment process. She says this meant, in June 2023, the Council named an unsuitable school in Section I of Child B’s Education Health and Care plan (EHC Plan). She complains the Council then failed to consult the same school by the end of September 2023, which was a deadline agreed during mediation. This complaint is late, as Mrs X did not complain to the Ombudsman until November 2024, and there are no good reasons for us to exercise discretion. Further, the alleged fault in these processes is directly linked to Mrs X’s SEND Tribunal appeal about the suitability of the placement named in Child B’s Plan. We cannot look at any complaint that overlaps with a SEND Tribunal appeal.
10. For the same reason, we cannot investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the school named in Child B’s EHC Plan from June, or that the Council failed to arrange educational provision while Child B was out of school. These matters overlap with the same SEND Tribunal appeal. Any dispute over provision while Child B was not in school is linked to Mrs X’s appeal that the school named in Section I could not meet her child’s need and was against parental wishes.
11. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about Council behaviour during the SEND Tribunal process. Mrs X could have raised these matters with the Tribunal. It is reasonable to have expected her to have done so.

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Final decision

12. We cannot investigate Mrs X’s complaint that the Council failed to arrange a suitable school placement or alternative educational provision for her child. This is because these matters overlap with a SEND Tribunal appeal about her child’s Education, Health and Care Plan.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman