The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the contents of an Education Health and Care plan. This is because it is reasonable for the complainant to use their right of appeal to a tribunal.
The complaint
Mr X complains that the Council has issued an Education Health and Care (EHC) plan that does not meet his child’s needs. Mr X says that provision has been removed from the EHC plan without his consent. Mr X also says the Council failed to properly deal with his complaint about this matter.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone has a right of appeal, reference or review to a tribunal about the same matter. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to use this right. (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 SEND 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 will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because he has a right of appeal against the contents of the EHC plan to the SEND Tribunal. Only the SEND Tribunal can order the Council to make changes to the provision detailed in Mr X’s child’s EHC plan and therefore it is reasonable for him to use that right of appeal.
I will not investigate how the Council dealt with Mr X’s complaint. This is because it is not a good use of public funds to investigate complaint handling when we have decided not to investigate the substantive issues raised within a complaint, as is the case here.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it is reasonable for him to use his right of appeal to the SEND Tribunal.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman