The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about school fees’ payment. The events are more than 12 months old and there are no good reasons why the late complaint rule should not apply.
The complaint
The complainant, whom I shall call Ms X, says the Council failed to pay school fees for her child, B, which she says caused them to lose the school place.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
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 has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Ms X and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
A Tribunal decided the content of B’s Education Health and Care Plan in February 2022. The Council accepts that this named School Y and that B started there in mid April 2020. It seems the Tribunal did not issue the formal order until July 2020.
Ms X says the Council failed to pay School Y’s fees. She says this caused School Y to permanently exclude B. She complained to the Council.
The Council replied to her complaint in November 2020 and February 2021. It said there had been anomalies with the bills which meant it had to query them. It says School Y excluded B in early November 2020 following incidents in October and it was not because of late payment of fees.
Ms X has known about the events she complains of since November 2020. She completed the Council’s complaints procedure in February 2021 and its letter signposted her to us. She says she delayed complaining to us out of fear of upsetting the Council whilst it was still responsible for B’s education. She says she moved out of its area in early 2022 and then felt able to complain. It still took her more than three months to do so.
We cannot investigate events known to Ms X for more than 12 months without good reasons and here I am satisfied there are not.
Final decision
We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because there are no good reasons why the late complaint rule should not apply.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman