Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s failure to hold an Education Health and Care Plan annual review on time. This is because the complaint does not meet the tests in our Assessment Code on how we decide which complaints to investigate as the Tribunal is currently considering the case.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Mr X, says the Council failed to hold his child, B’s, Education Health and Care Plan’s (EHC Plan) annual review at the right time.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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.
3. We cannot investigate a complaint if someone has appealed to a tribunal. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by Mr X.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
6. I considered Mr X’s comments on a draft version of this decision.

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My assessment

7. Mr X says the Council should have held an annual review for his son, B, in February 2021. He says the Council issued an EHC Plan in March 2021 which referred to the annual review which had never been held. Mr X says he appealed to SEND in March 2021 for the Tribunal to decide if an EHC Plan issued in January 2021 met B’s needs. Mr X says that if the Council had held the February 2021 annual review he believes his appeal may not have been necessary.
8. We cannot investigate issues which Mr X has appealed to the Tribunal about. Mr X has appealed whether the EHC Plan meets his child’s needs. His complaint to us is that if the annual review had been held that appeal would not be necessary because the Council would have changed the EHC Plan to the way Mr X prefers. This means Mr X’s complaint is very closely linked to the appeal and cannot be separated.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because Mr X’s complaint is too closely linked to an ongoing Tribunal appeal.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman