Hampshire County Council (21 012 830)
Category : Education > Special educational needs
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 02 Feb 2022
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council's special educational needs team’s delays.
The complaint
- The complainant, whom I shall call Mr X, says the Council’s education team failed to reply to his telephone call.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse effect on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start an investigation if we decide the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council’s replies to his complaints which it provided.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mr X says that his child has an Education Health and Care Plan (EHC Plan). He says that in March 2021 he contacted the Council’s special educational needs team to find out if the funding for his child’s EHC Plan would continue in September 2021. He says he had to call the Council many times over the next few months. He says that he eventually found out the Council had agreed the funding. His child continued with their EHC Plan provision in September 2021 and there was no gap in provision.
- Mr X complained to the Council. I have seen its replies of September 2021 and January 2022. It accepted Mr X had chased the Council five to six times before getting a reply. It apologised for this. It arranged an annual review for early February 2022. It said the delays were caused by an officer being on sick leave.
- Mr X says communication needs to be improved.
Analysis
- Mr X and his family have not suffered serious loss, harm, or distress as a direct result of the Council’s faults or failures.
- The Council’s response to the complaint already represents a reasonable and proportionate outcome.
- We are unlikely to achieve a significantly different result.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it is unlikely we could achieve a significantly different result and the injustice caused to the family by the accepted fault is not significant enough to justify an investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman