Cambridgeshire County Council (24 009 633)

Statement Upheld Special educational needs 24-Jun-2025

Summary: Mrs X complained the Council failed to ensure her children D and P received the special educational needs provision in their Education, Health, and Care Plans. D and P did not receive all the provision in their Plans and the Council failed to properly investigate when Mrs X raised concerns about this. This meant D and P missed provision, and caused distress to D, P, and their parents. The Council agreed to apologise, pay a financial remedy, and issue reminders to its staff.

Reading Borough Council (24 010 609)

Statement Upheld Special educational needs 24-Jun-2025

Summary: Mr X complained about the Council’s handling of the annual review of his child’s Education, Health and Care Plan. We found avoidable delay by the Council in completing the annual review which added to Mr X’s frustration. The Council had already apologised to Mr X and offered him a symbolic payment of £600. We found the offer made by the Council suitably addressed the injustice to Mr X caused by its avoidable delay.

Medway Council (24 011 419)

Statement Upheld Special educational needs 24-Jun-2025

Summary: Ms C complained the Council delayed completing an education, health and care needs assessment, failed to provide alternative education and delayed responding to her complaint. The Council failed to comply with the timescales for the needs assessment and delayed issuing a final education, health and care plan, delayed putting in place alternative education and delayed considering Ms C’s complaint. That meant Ms C’s daughter missed out on education and Ms C experienced frustration and uncertainty. An apology and payment to Ms C is satisfactory remedy.

Gloucestershire County Council (24 013 518)

Statement Upheld Special educational needs 24-Jun-2025

Summary: Mrs F complained the Council delayed assessing her daughter’s education, health and care needs and failed to provide home to school transport. There was fault which caused injustice as Mrs F’s children missed out on education. The Council has agreed to make a payment to Mrs F to remedy this.

Suffolk County Council (24 016 484)

Statement Upheld Special educational needs 24-Jun-2025

Summary: The Council accepts it failed to communicate and secure the provision in Ms X’s child, Y’s, Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan when her college placement failed. This caused Ms X and Y frustration, and distress and meant Y missed out on the SEN provision in their EHC Plan. The Council has apologised and made a payment to Ms X and Y. We are satisfied with the Council’s actions.

London Borough of Croydon (24 018 050)

Statement Upheld Special educational needs 24-Jun-2025

Summary: The Council was at fault as it failed to provide occupational therapy for Miss X’s child from September 2024 to March 2025 in line with their Education, Health and Care Plan, and it poorly communicated and handled her case. It will apologise and make a payment to Miss X to acknowledge the impact of the missed occupational therapy provision. It will also identify why it failed to arrange the occupational therapy provision and report back to us on the action it has taken to address this.

Milton Keynes Council (24 021 886)

Statement Closed after initial enquiries Special educational needs 24-Jun-2025

Summary: We will not investigate this complaint that the Council acted with fault in intervening to deny the complainant’s request for flexi-schooling for his son. Investigation would not add anything significant to the response the Council has made, or lead to a different outcome, and is not therefore warranted.

Birmingham City Council (24 022 055)

Statement Closed after initial enquiries Special educational needs 24-Jun-2025

Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of her child’s Special Educational Needs (SEN) provision. The Council has already apologised and offered a remedy payment to Ms X for the injustice caused by its faults. There is nothing more we could achieve by investigating further.

Suffolk County Council (25 000 107)

Statement Upheld Special educational needs 24-Jun-2025

Summary: We upheld Mrs X’s complaint about delays in the Education, Health and Care process regarding her child, Y, and about the Council’s poor communication. The Council upheld the complaint, apologised, and offered a total remedy of £1,200 as part of its complaint process. An investigation by the Ombudsman is unlikely to achieve anything further.

Essex County Council (25 001 373)

Statement Upheld Special educational needs 24-Jun-2025

Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Education, Health and Care plan process. This is because the Council has agreed to an appropriate remedy for the injustice caused by the delay.