The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We cannot investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the Council’s decision to name a school in her child’s Education Health and Care Plan which Mrs X says cannot meet their needs. We also cannot investigate Mrs X’s concerns about the Council’s conduct during her appeal against the decision. This is because Mrs X has used her right of appeal to the SEND Tribunal and any investigation into these issues would overlap with the role of the Tribunal.
The complaint
Mrs X complains the Council named an unsuitable school (School Y) in her child’s Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan and did not explain its reasons. She also complains about the Council’s conduct as part of her appeal against its decision. She says this led to her child losing out on a placement at her preferred school (School Z), loss of education and impact on her family’s mental and physical health.
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 Mrs X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Because Mrs X appealed against the Council’s decision to name School Y in her child’s EHC Plan we cannot investigate any complaint about this decision, or provide Mrs X with the answers she is looking for about how and why it made its decision.
We also cannot investigate any complaint about the Council’s conduct as part of Mrs X’s appeal to the Tribunal. This is because it overlaps with the Tribunal’s role. Mrs X has provided evidence to show she raised concerns about the Council’s actions and the Tribunal considered these as part of her appeal, barring it from participating further in the case before later agreeing to reverse its decision.
It therefore follows that we cannot recommend any remedy for Mrs X or her child from the issues she complains about, as they are not within our jurisdiction to investigate.
While Mrs X is also unhappy with the way the Council dealt with her complaint it is not a good use of public resources to look at the Council’s complaints handling if we are not going to look at the substantive issue complained about. We will not therefore investigate this issue separately.
Final decision
We cannot investigate this complaint. This is because the issues raised overlap with those already considered by the Tribunal.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman