The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the education provision for a child. This is because the issues raised have either previously been considered, are inseparable from an appeal to the SEND Tribunal or have not caused a significant injustice to the complainant.
The complaint
Mrs X complains that the Council has failed to meet the provision detailed in her child’s Education Health and Care (EHC) Plan and refused to reimburse her for tuition she arranged. Mrs X also complains that the Council delayed carrying out an annual review of the EHC Plan and that its review was inadequate.
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 fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B)) 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) 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.
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
I will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint that the Council failed to arrange the provision details in her child’s EHC Plan. We have previously considered this issue under another case reference, and we cannot accept multiple complaints about the same matter.
I will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint that the Council delayed carrying out an annual review of her child’s EHC Plan. The review was carried out whilst Mrs X had a live appeal to the SEND Tribunal. I do not consider that any delay in completing the review has caused a significant injustice to Mrs X. This is because the outcome of the review will feed into the appeal, and the hearing has yet to be held. Therefore, even if the review had been held sooner, the outcome would have been the same. I cannot investigate the adequacy of the review as doing so would overlap with the role of the Tribunal.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because the issues raised have either previously been considered, are inseparable from an appeal to the SEND Tribunal or have not caused a significant injustice to the complainant.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman