Summary: Mrs X complained the Council failed to provide her son with education after they moved into the area. The Council was at fault. Mrs X’s son, who has special educational needs, was without education for three months and received part-time education for approximately five further months. The Council has agreed to take steps to remedy their personal injustice.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains the Council failed to provide her son, Y, with an education after they moved into the Council’s area. She says this caused strain on her family and she would like a financial remedy for the impact this has had.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word fault to refer to these. Service failure can happen when an organisation fails to provide a service as it should have done because of circumstances outside its control. We do not need to show any blame, intent, flawed policy or process, or bad faith by an organisation to say service failure (fault) has occurred. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1), as amended)
3. If we are satisfied with an organisation’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(1), as amended)
4. Under our information sharing agreement, we will share this decision with the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted).

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered evidence provided by Mrs X and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
6. Mrs X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered their comments before making my final decision.

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What I found

The special educational needs and disability (SEND) code of practice

7. A child or young person with special educational needs may have an education, health and care (EHC) plan. This document sets out their needs and what arrangements should be made to meet them.
8. When a young person moves between council areas, arrangements must still be made for them to attend the placement named in their EHC plan, unless this would be impractical.
9. If their attendance at the named placement would be impractical, the new council must place them temporarily at another appropriate educational institution until it formally amends their EHC plan (and names a new placement).
10. The new council must review the young person’s EHC plan within three months of the transfer, or within a year of the plan being made or last being reviewed – whichever is the later.
11. Children whose parent(s) are Service personnel may face difficulties that are unique to the nature of their serving parent’s employment. Service personnel may relocate more often than the rest of the population and, sometimes, at short notice. Such transitions should be well managed to avoid Service children with SEN experiencing delays in having their needs assessed and met.
12. When children move home across local authority boundaries, local authorities should transfer the EHC plan from the ‘old’ local authority to the ‘new’ local authority within 15 days from when they first become aware of the move. The new local authority will have to tell the parents within 6 weeks of the transfer of the EHC plan whether the authority will bring forward the annual review of the plan and whether it intends to reassess the child. From the transfer of the plan the new local authority must arrange the special educational provision set out in it, although a child may have to be placed in a school other than the one named on the plan if the distance of the move makes it impractical.
13. Local authorities must make arrangements where, for any reason, a child of compulsory school age would not otherwise receive suitable education. Suitable education means efficient education suitable to a child or young person’s age, ability and aptitude and to any SEN he or she may have. This education must be full time, unless the local authority determines that, for reasons relating to the physical or mental health of the child, a reduced level of education would be in the child’s best interests.

Armed Forces Covenant Duty

14. The Armed Forces Covenant Duty is the following legal obligation. When a specified body exercises a relevant function, it must have due regard to:

1. the unique obligations of, and sacrifices made by, the armed forces;

2. the principle that it is desirable to remove disadvantages arising for Service people from membership, or former membership, of the armed forces; and,

3. the principle that special provision for Service people may be justified by the effects on such people of membership, or former membership, of the armed forces.

What happened

15. Mrs X’s husband serves in the military. In September 2024 she informed the previous council (where she lived at the time) that the family would be moving to Wiltshire’s area in November 2024.
16. The previous Council notified Wiltshire and shared part of Y’s files, saying they would transfer the full file once Y had moved to Wiltshire’s area.
17. During the communication between both Councils, it was noted that although Y was attending a mainstream school, the placement was not meeting his needs and a specialist provision would be more appropriate.
18. Wiltshire made several requests for the full documentation, reminding the previous council that Y was part of a military family and early consultation with schools was important.
19. In October 2024, once the previous Council provided the full documentation, Wiltshire reviewed it and decided to adopt Y’s current Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan and agreed to seek a specialist placement.
20. In November 2024, Wiltshire began consulting with schools but no placement was offered.
21. Mrs X received support from the Ministry of Defence’s Education Advisor who contacted Wiltshire in January 2025 to remind it that Y had been out of education since November 2024.
22. The Education Advisor also reminded the Council of its responsibilities under the Send Code of Practice and the Armed Forces Covenant Duty.
23. In January 2025, correspondence between Wiltshire and a proposed specialist provision confirmed that Y was not attending any education and that approximately nine hours of tuition per week were being sought.
24. At the end of February 2025, Y began attending an alternative provision on a part-time basis, receiving eight hours of education per week.
25. At the end of April 2025, Y started at his permanent specialist placement, initially attending for10 hours a week before increasing to full-time attendance in September 2025.

My findings

26. It would not have been practical for Y to attend the school named within his EHC plan due to the distance from the family’s new home (approximately 200 miles). However, the Council should have arranged suitable temporary education until a new placement was identified.
27. The EHC plan was transferred in October 2024 but not within 15-day timescale set out in in the SEND Code of Practice and this is fault. Wiltshire did made several requests for the transfer from the previous Council and highlighted that the family were a military family.
28. The previous EHCP was finalised in March 2024, meaning the annual review was due by March 2025. The annual review was completed within the required timescales.
29. The SEND Code of Practice and the Armed Forces Covenant make clear that Service families should not be disadvantaged. While the evidence shows the Council was aware of its obligations, Y was not provided with suitable alternative education while a permanent placement was being sought.
30. The Council did take steps to consult with several schools; however, Y remained without education and no suitable education was arranged until February 2025. When education was arranged between February and July, it was only part-time. This did not meet the Council’s statutory obligations, for which it was at fault. This resulted in an injustice to Y, as he missed out on education and special educational needs support.

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Action

31. Within four weeks, the Council has agreed to:
• Write to Mrs X, apologising for the delay in providing Y with an education. We publish guidance which sets out what we expect an effective apology to look like. The Council will consider this guidance when writing to Mrs X.
• Make a symbolic payment to Mrs X of £1500 to recognise the likely injustice that Y has suffered from being without education from November 2024 to February 2025 and a part-time timetable from February 2025 to July 2025.

• Make a symbolic payment to Mrs X of £250 to recognise the distress and uncertainty she likely experienced and the impact on her and her family during this period.
3. The Council will provide us with evidence it has done these things.

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Decision

33. The Council was at fault. This caused injustice to Mrs X and Y, which the Council will now take action to address.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman