Sheffield City Council (19 002 398)

Category : Education > Special educational needs

Decision : Closed after initial enquiries

Decision date : 09 Jul 2019

The Ombudsman's final decision:

Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s alleged failure to complete Mr D’s Education, Health and Care Plan, and its alleged failure to look for alternative provision when Mr D could not continue with his college course. The complaint is late.

The complaint

  1. Miss Q complained on behalf of Mr D about Sheffield City Council’s failure to complete his Education, Health and Care Plan (EHC Plan). She also said there was no liaison between departments and the Council failed to take any action when Mr D could not continue with his college course.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

  1. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
  2. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

  1. I considered the information Miss Q provided. I considered the information the Council provided. I invited Miss Q to comment on a draft of this decision.

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What I found

Key facts

  1. Mr D has autism and other conditions that make communication difficult for him. He is now 26 years old.
  2. In 2016 the Council started to assess Mr D’s educational and support needs. In December 2016 Miss Q complained to the Council about its handling of the assessment. In January 2017 the Council wrote to Miss Q saying Mr D had received a draft EHC Plan and that he would be supported through the rest of the assessment by a named officer.
  3. In May 2017 the Council emailed Miss Q saying a college had made a provisional offer of a place to Mr D. Miss Q said Mr D and his mother found the course themselves and liaised with the college. She said they did not receive any support from the Education Department.
  4. In July 2017 the Council finalised Mr D’s EHC Plan. Miss Q said the Council did not complete the EHC Plan and Mr D did not receive a copy of it.
  5. Mr D started at college in September 2017. However, by then the timetable had changed and the promised support was no longer in place. He could not cope with these changes and left the course after one day.
  6. In November 2017 Miss Q and Mr D met Adult Social Care officers to discuss a social care assessment.
  7. Miss Q complained to the Council in October 2018 about its failure to issue Mr D’s EHC Plan and about its failure to look for alternative provision when the college placement broke down. She said there was no liaison between departments and he only received adult social care support following legal intervention. Miss Q complained again in November 2018. The Council responded to the complaint in December 2018.
  8. Miss Q complained to us on behalf of Mr D in May 2019, repeating the complaints she had made to the Council about its failure to issue his EHC Plan, its departments’ failure to liaise, and its failure to find an alternative education provision for him. Miss Q said once Mr D turned 25 he did not qualify for any support from the Education Department.
  9. Miss Q said she had not complained to us sooner because the Council was supposedly trying to find a solution. She said it would involve a new worker who would visit once, then leave it for months before saying that the proposed option was not suitable. Miss Q said the Council did not put anything in writing to say it would not make any provision.

Analysis

  1. We will not investigate this complaint.
  2. Miss Q and Mr D were aware in 2017 of the Council’s alleged failure to issue his finalised EHC Plan and its alleged failure to make alternative provision when his college placement broke down. But they did not complain to the Council until October 2018, more than a year after the placement ended. And they did not complain to us until May 2019, more than 18 months after Mr D’s placement ended. The complaint is late, therefore, and so the restriction described in paragraph 3 applies.
  3. I can understand that Mr D and his mother were hopeful the Council would find a solution. But Miss Q said officers left matters for months before saying preferred options were not suitable. In my view, it would have been apparent quite quickly that the Council was taking too long to finalise Mr D’s EHC Plan and to find an alternative placement for him. So the complaint could have been made to us sooner. Therefore, while we do have some discretion to investigate late complaints, I do not think there are good reasons to do so in this case.

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Final decision

  1. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because it is late.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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