Overview:

Key to names used

• Mrs X The complainant
• D Her daughter
• Case Officer 1
• Case Officer 2
• Case Officer 3
• Officer B Lead Area Co-ordinator

Report summary

Mrs X complained that the Council failed to ensure her daughter received the Occupational Therapy (OT) support set out in her Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan from February 2020.

Finding

Fault found causing injustice and recommendations made.

Recommendations

The Council must consider the report and confirm within three months the action it has taken or proposes to take. The Council should consider the report at its full Council, Cabinet or other appropriately delegated committee of elected members and we will require evidence of this. (Local Government Act 1974, section 31(2), as amended)

In addition to the requirement set out above, to remedy the injustice caused we recommend that the Council take the action set out below within three months of the date of this report.

• Apologise to Mrs X for the failings we have identified and the impact on her and her daughter.

• Pay £300 to recognise the anxiety and uncertainty about what provision D might have had between May and the end of July 2020, and the loss of opportunity to appeal.

• Pay £250 to recognise Mrs X’s frustration and time and trouble in pursuing her complaint.

• Pay £1,800 to reflect the loss of potential OT support from September 2020 to January 2021. This is based on the likelihood that OT would have been included in the EHC plan if the review process had been completed in time.

• Pay £4,000 to recognise the loss of OT provision from January 2021 to the end of February 2022 when there was a clear duty to put it in place.

  To improve services to Mrs X and other families we recommend that within four months of the date of this report the Council should:

• arrange training for relevant staff to ensure they understand the Council’s obligation to ensure provision under an EHC plan is arranged;

• review its processes to ensure EHC plans are amended and issued following an Annual Review in line with statutory timescales and the requirements of the Code;

• ensure the Council has a mechanism in place for checking provision specified in an EHC plan is arranged from the start of a new or amended plan; and

• review sources of therapy services and develop a plan to ensure it can commission therapies needed to support the EHC plans it maintains.

Ombudsman satisfied with Council's response: 13 October 2022.

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