Summary: Ms X says the Council has failed to provide education for her child for two and a half years. We did not find fault with the Council failing to provide education for Ms X’s child. This is because, the responsibility for providing education fell with a different council.

The complaint

1. Ms X says the Council has failed to provide education for her child for two and a half years.
2. Ms X says she contacted the Council before the school did but the Council has no record of this. Ms X says the Council attended a meeting with the school and asked the school to provide education for her child.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. If there has been fault which has caused an injustice, we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
4. We cannot investigate complaints about what happens in schools. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5, paragraph 5(b), as amended)
5. If we are satisfied with a council’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)
6. Under the information sharing agreement between the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman and the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted), we will share this decision with Ofsted.

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What I have not investigated

7. I have not investigated the actions of Derbyshire County Council as part of this complaint despite it being the responsible local authority for providing education to Ms X’s child. This is because Mrs X has not complained to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (the Ombudsman) about Derbyshire County Council. Ms X directed her complaint to Leicestershire County Council who are the basis of this complaint.

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How I considered this complaint

8. I have considered all the information Ms X provided. I have also asked the Council questions and requested information, and in turn have considered the Council’s response.
9. Both Ms X and the Council had opportunity to comment on my draft decision before I made my final decision.

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What I found

What happened

10. On 24 October 2022, Ms X made a referral to Derbyshire County Council for an Education and Health Care (EHC) Plan for child, who I shall refer to as Y. Ms X told the Council Y was attending school on a reduced timetable because of struggles with attendance.
11. Y stopped attending school entirely in November 2022. Y’s school told Derbyshire County Council on 15 November 2022 about Y being unable to attend school as part of its input into Y’s EHC Plan.
12. On 28 November 2022, Y’s school contacted Leicestershire County Council for input from its inclusion service about Y’s missed education.
13. Ms X contacted Leicestershire County Council on 27 February 2023 to advise Y was not attending school. Ms X told the Council Y’s school was not sending work home.
14. On 5 May 2023, Leicestershire County Council held a meeting with Ms X and the school. Leicestershire County Council advised the school to liaise with Derbyshire County Council about Y’s education while Y was medically unfit to attend school. Leicestershire County Council also provided advice about building Y’s relationship with school.

Analysis

15. As noted in paragraph 7, Derbyshire County Council is the responsible authority for providing education for Y. This is because Ms X and Y live in this local authority area. While Y’s school is registered to Leicestershire County Council, the responsibility to provide education is with the local authority area in which the person lives.
16. Since Ms X does not in the local authority area of Leicestershire County Council, it had no responsibility to arrange education for Y when Y was out of education. As such, I cannot find fault with the Council failing to provide education.
17. While Leicestershire County Council was not at fault for failing to provide education, it should have signposted Ms X to Derbyshire County Council on contact from her about Y failing to attend school. Ms X contacted Leicestershire County Council on 27 February 2023 and it failed to signpost her to Derbyshire County Council for nearly 10 weeks. This was fault.
18. While this delay was technically fault, this did not cause any additional injustice to Ms X or Y. This is because Derbyshire County Council was already aware that Y was out of education since at least November 2022. Since Derbyshire County Council was aware of Y’s absence, Leicestershire County Council failing to signpost has not prevented it from acting sooner.
19. Should Ms X want to complain about the lack of education provided for Y, she would need to raise a complaint with Derbyshire County Council. Ms X could then bring this matter to the attention of the Ombudsman.

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Final decision

20. I have completed my investigation as there was no fault in the Council’s causing and injustice to Ms X.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman