The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We cannot investigate Miss X’s complaint about the Council’s decision not to carry out an Education Health and Care needs assessment. This is because she has used her right of appeal to a tribunal. Other matters have not caused a significant enough injustice to warrant investigation.
The complaint
Miss X complains that the Council has failed to ensure appropriate support is in place to meet her daughter’s special education needs. Miss X says the Council’s communication about these matters has been poor.
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)) 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 - SEND) 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 the complainant and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
I cannot investigate the Council’s decision not to carry out an Education Health and Care (EHC) needs assessment in order to meet the needs of Miss X’s child. This is because Miss X has used her right of appeal to the SEND Tribunal about this decision.
I will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about poor communication by the Council in relation to this matter. Whilst poor communication may have caused Miss X a certain level of frustration, I do not consider this alone amounts to a significant enough injustice to warrant investigation.
Final decision
We cannot investigate Miss X’s complaint about the Council’s decision not to carry out an EHC needs assessment because she has used her right of appeal to a tribunal. Other matters have not caused a significant enough injustice to warrant investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman