Summary: The Council has acknowledged that it took too long to issue the Education Health and Care Plan for Mrs X’s child, and to start funding his alternative educational provision. It also found that it had not always responded to Mrs X’s complaints fully or accurately. The Council apologised to Mrs X, has made improvements to its service, and has offered to make symbolic payments to Mrs X in recognition of the distress and uncertainty it caused her, and the impact of her child missing education.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains that the Council failed to:
• Make alternative educational provision for her child from Febraury 2025 when he stopped being able to go to school; and
• issue the final Education Health and Care (EHC) Plan in line with the legal time limits.
2. Mrs X says that as a result of the Council’s failings her son missed out on education, she had to fund his education herself, and she was caused distress and frustration.

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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 significant injustice, or that could cause injustice to others in the future we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
4. 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)

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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 any comments before making a final decision.
7. 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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What I found

The law and guidance

8. A child or young person with special educational needs may have an Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan. This document sets out the child’s needs and what arrangements should be made to meet them. The EHC Plan is set out in sections.
9. Statutory guidance ‘Special educational needs and disability code of practice: 0 to 25 years’ (‘the Code’) sets out the process for carrying out EHC assessments and producing EHC Plans. The guidance is based on the Children and Families Act 2014 and the SEN Regulations 2014. It says the following: 

• Where the council receives a request for an EHC needs assessment it must decide whether to agree to the assessment and send its decision to the parent of the child or the young person within six weeks. 
• If the council goes on to carry out an assessment, it must decide whether to issue an EHC Plan or refuse to issue a Plan within 16 weeks.
• If the council goes on to issue an EHC Plan, the whole process from the point when an assessment is requested until the final EHC Plan is issued must take no more than 20 weeks (unless certain specific circumstances apply);  

10. Section 19 of the Education Act 1996 says that the council must arrange suitable alternative educational provision when it finds that a child is unable to attend school because of a permanent exclusion, an illness, or for any other reason which make the school inaccessible to the child. The alternative educational provision must be suitable to the child’s age, ability and aptitude, and any special educational needs they have.

What happened

11. Mrs X’s child, K, stopped attending school in February 2025 due to his special educational needs and his mental health. At the beginning of March, Mrs X informed the Council of this, and she requested an EHC Needs Assessment.
12. The Council contacted the school for more information about what had happened, and at the end of March, it decided that it had a duty to make alternative educational provision. Mrs X had an email from the Council confirming this at the end of April.
13. It arranged for K to attend an educational provider aimed at children with K’s difficulty attending school. K and Mrs X visited in May (the slight delay being due to the school holiday and Mrs X finding a suitable time for this). However, K found he could not attend the provision.
14. Mrs X started to pay for a tutor for K, and in mid-June, she asked the Council to fund this. The Council refused this request because the Educational Psychologist was close to completing their assessment for the EHC Plan. The Council agreed to issue an EHC Plan on 1 July and under that Plan it would fund alternative provision for K.
15. K started to attend an alternative provision of education from the end of September and the Council funded this. However, the Council did not issue the final Plan until 20 November. The Council said that this delay was largely due to a lack of capacity within its service. Mrs X has also added that although the Council issued the final Plan it did not send her a copy until January 2026.
16. In the meantime, Mrs X complained to the Council and then to the Ombudsman.

Was there fault by the Council causing injustice to Mrs X and to K?

17. In response to Mrs X’s complaint to the Ombudsman, the Council reviewed how it handled K’s education. It acknowledged that it had taken too long to issue the EHC Plan. Mrs X requested the EHC Needs Assessment on 4 March and so the Council should have issued the final EHC Plan by 22 July. The Council did not issue the final Plan until 20 November and so it was at least 17 weeks late, and possibly later if Mrs X did not receive the final Plan at that time.
18. The Council has also acknowledged that it took too long to take over the funding of K’s alternative educational provision. It also found that it had not always responded to Mrs X’s complaints fully or accurately.
19. The Council has apologised to Mrs X for its shortcomings. The Council has offered to refund Mrs X the amount she paid for privately tutoring, plus a symbolic payment of £1800 in recognition of the impact on K of missed provision between May, when it established K could not attend the alternative provision offered, to the end of September.
20. The Council also offered to pay Mrs X £425 in recognition of the distress and frustration it caused her when it took too long to issue the EHC Plan, and £250 in recognition of the additional time and trouble it put her to when it did not deal with her complaints properly.
21. Mrs X had asked the Council for a team around the family to support her child and his problems with attending school. The Council has offered to arrange this if Mrs X still feels it will be helpful.
22. The Council has made improvements to how it tracks and takes action where a child cannot attend school. It will review what lessons can be learned from Mrs X’s complaint. The Council has explained that it has also:
• Strengthened its process for dealing with alternative educational provision.
• Recruited additional staff at all levels of the SEND support service, including a senior officer responsible for overseeing education other than at school when a child is not on the school roll and is receiving alternative provision.
• Improved attendance data reporting to the SEND Panel to help inform decisions, and ensured there is a better link between the Panel and officers to help make sure that the child accesses appropriate education.
• Made sure that where a child cannot attend the education provision for children who have emotionally based school non-attendance, they are referred to a bespoke framework to explore all education providers that the Council can commission.
• Recognised that its alternative educational provision and its SEND service was not working together fully where a child cannot attend school and has an EHC Plan, and it has improved how these two areas work together.
• Considered developing a more holistic approach to support families where the child is considered by the alternative educational provision Panel.
23. I welcome the work done by the Council, and its offer to make symbolic payments to Mrs X in recognition of the impact of its shortcomings on her and her son. This is in line with the Ombudsman’s Guidance on Remedies, and I have no further recommendations for the Council to implement.

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Action

24. The Council has made the payments it has offered. Namely it has refunded Mrs X the amount she paid for privately tutoring and made the symbolic payment totalling £2475, to recognise the impact on her and her child. The Council has provided us with evidence of this.

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Decision

25. I find fault causing injustice. The Council has agreed actions to remedy injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman