Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s failure to secure special educational needs provision for the complainant’s son. This is because the complaint has already been upheld and we would not seek to add to the outcome.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Miss X, complains that the Council failed to secure the provision ordered for her son by the First-tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability).

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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.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Miss X’s son has special educational needs and an Education Health and Care plan. The appropriate provision to meet his needs was the subject of an appeal to the First-tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability) which concluded in October 2023.
6. The Tribunal set out a specific number of hours of tutoring, occupational therapy and speech and language therapy to be provided for Miss X’s son. Miss X complains that the Council failed in its duty to make the provision.
7. The Council has upheld Miss X’s complaint. It has accepted that it failed to make the necessary provision for a year, and that this amounted to fault on its part. It has apologised and offered payments to Miss X totalling £4750. It has also set out steps it will take to address the lack of provision.
8. The Ombudsman will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because we would not seek to add anything significant to the outcome which has already been achieved. It is not a good use of our resources to investigate complaints which have already been upheld, and we will not normally do so.
9. The payments the Council has offered in settlement of the complaint are in line with the Ombudsman’s guidance on remedies. The action it has proposed is reasonable in the circumstances and investigation would not lead to a different outcome. Our intervention is not therefore warranted.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because we would not seek to add to the outcome already achieved.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman