How do I complain about my local authority's SEND service?

Complain first to your local authority and exhaust its complaints process; escalate delay or undelivered EHCP provision to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, but appeal EHCP decisions to the SEND Tribunal. Which route fits depends entirely on what you are unhappy about, and that is the bit most guides blur.

Start with a written complaint to the council

Put your complaint in writing to the council, addressed to its formal complaints team, not the caseworker who has gone quiet. Set out what was meant to happen, what actually happened, and what you want put right. The council's own procedure is usually expected to finish within about 12 weeks. You have to complete every stage of it before anyone outside the council will look at the case. If you want help framing the letter, your local SENDIASS (the free Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Information, Advice and Support Service) can talk it through with you.

Maladministration goes to the Ombudsman

If your real problem is the council mishandling its job, that is maladministration, and the route is the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO). The Ombudsman is free and investigates things like:

• delay in assessing for, or issuing, an EHC plan;
• failure to deliver the support named in Section F of the plan (the part that lists the help your child must get);
• failure to carry out or act on an annual review;
• poor communication or being ignored.

Two conditions. You must finish the council's own complaints procedure first, and you normally have to go to the Ombudsman within 12 months of realising something had gone wrong. Its power to investigate councils comes from the Local Government Act 1974. The LGSCO sets out exactly what it can and cannot look at on its SEN fact sheet.

A decision you disagree with is an appeal, not a complaint

Here is the trap. If you disagree with an actual EHCP decision, a refusal to assess, what the plan says, or a decision to stop the plan, that is not a complaint at all. It is a statutory appeal to the SEND First-tier Tribunal under the Children and Families Act 2014, and the Ombudsman is barred from touching it. For most appeals you first contact a mediation adviser and get a mediation certificate (notification of this right sits in section 52 of the Act), then you have two months from the decision letter to lodge. Appeals work: of SEND Tribunal cases decided in 2024/25, around 99% went in the family's favour, the same as the year before. See how EHCP mediation works if you are unsure whether to use it.

Pick the wrong route and you can miss the two-month appeal window or have the Ombudsman decline the case, so be clear from the start whether you are unhappy with how the council behaved or with what it decided.

This page is general information, not clinical or legal advice.