Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about the Council failing to amend an Education Health and Care Plan following an annual review. The Tribunal is considering what the child’s Education Health and Care Plan should say.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Miss X, says the Council delayed in amending an Education Health and Care Plan (EHC Plan) for her child, B.

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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 about the same matter. (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 Miss X and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Miss X’s child, B, has additional educational needs. These are set out in B’s EHC Plan.
7. Miss X says the Council has not amended B’s EHC Plan following the annual review held in spring 2022. The Council says that it will not amend the EHC Plan following the annual review because Miss X has appealed an earlier version to SEND.
8. Miss X has confirmed she has appealed to SEND and the hearing date is set for November 2023. She says B has been offered and provided with some education in the meantime.
9. We cannot investigate the same issues a Tribunal is considering. Here the Tribunal is considering what the EHC Plan should say. This means we cannot investigate if the annual review should have led to an amended EHC Plan.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because we cannot investigate the same issues a Tribunal is considering.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman