The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of her child’s Education, Health and Care Plan. This is because part of the complaint is late, some matters are too closely linked to issues which Miss X has appealed to the Tribunal, and the remaining administration error did not cause enough injustice to warrant an investigation.
The complaint
Miss X complains the Council delayed updating her child’s Education and Health Care Plan (EHC) plan. She says the Council named a setting that was unsuitable for her child and failed to provide a suitable education while she appealed to the Tribunal.
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: there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or there is another body better placed to consider this complaint. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B)) 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.
We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a @council/care provider has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Miss X and the Council and I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Parents who are unhappy with provision in an EHC plan have a right of appeal to the Tribunal. It is the mechanism set up by Parliament for parents to challenge such decisions.
Miss X says the Council failed to update her child’s EHCP for five years. She says the Council made administrative errors that delayed the plan being finalised and did not discuss her child’s case at panel. She also says the Council did not consider professional reports or properly consult education settings during the review of her child’s EHC plan.
The Council accepts that there was a failure to update Miss X’s child’s EHC plan and delays in the mediation process. It says Y’s case was considered by the Council’s multi-disciplinary panel and decisions about the EHC plan could be challenged by appeal to the Tribunal.
We will not consider the Council’s failure to update Y’s EHC plan before January 2025. This part of the complaint is late. I have seen no good reason to exercise discretion to investigate it. It would have been reasonable for Miss X to complain about this issue sooner.
Miss X has used her right to appeal to the Tribunal. This means we cannot consider whether the Council properly considered professional reports or consulted settings during the annual review process. These matters are too closely linked to those considered by the Tribunal, so we cannot investigate them.
Miss X asked the Council to provide alternative education for her child while waiting for the Tribunal. As Miss X appealed to the tribunal, it will consider whether the named school was suitable to meet Y’s needs. We cannot investigate issues that overlap with this point.
Miss X complained the Council made administrative errors which delayed finalising the EHC plan. The Council apologised for the error which caused a short delay to mediation. This has not caused significant enough injustice to warrant an investigation.
Miss X is also unhappy with the Council’s complaint handling. As we are not considering the substantive issue, it is not a good use of public resources to consider this matter. We will not investigate this.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman