The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We cannot investigate Ms X’s complaint about the Council’s refusal to carry out an Education Health Care needs assessment or the contents of the Education Health and Care Plan. This is because Ms X has appealed to a tribunal.
The complaint
Ms X complains about Council’s original decision to refuse to carry out an Educational Health Care (EHC) needs assessment and that the final EHC Plan issued is inadequate.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
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 Tribunal in this decision statement.
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Ms X and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
The Council initially refused to carry out an EHC needs assessment, but Ms X successfully appealed. The Council issued a final EHC Plan in February 2024. Ms X submitted a further appeal to the SEND Tribunal in June 2024 as she considered the EHC Plan to be inadequate, and disagreed with the Council’s decision to name a mainstream school.
I cannot investigate this complaint because Mrs X has exercised her right of appeal to the SEND Tribunal.
Final decision
We cannot investigate Mrs X’s complaint. This is because Ms X’s concerns relate to the Council’s refusal to carry out an EHC needs assessment and the content of her son’s EHC Plan. Ms X has used her right to appeal to a tribunal.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman