The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council’s Adults’ Health and Care team failed to correspond with its Special Educational Needs team. This is because the alleged fault has not caused a significant enough injustice to warrant an investigation.
The complaint
Mr X complains the Council’s Adults’ Health and Care (AHC) team failed to correspond with its Special Educational Needs (SEN) team about his daughter, Y.
Mr X says AHC previously agreed to escalate concerns to SEN about delays in progressing Y’s Education, Health and Care (EHC) and Personal Budget reviews following a meeting in March 2024. He also complains the Council failed to address his complaint in a proactive and constructive way.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
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))
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 investigate Mr X’s complaint about the AHC teams’ communications because any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. The SEN team is responsible to arrange Y’s EHC and Personal Budget review within statutory timescales. And Mr X has complained separately to that team about the delays. Any fault causing significant injustice lies with Mr X’s complaint about the SEN team.
We will not investigate the Council’s handling of Mr X’s complaint in isolation because this would not be good use of public funds.
Final decision
We will not investigate this complaint because any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman