Cheshire East Council (22 003 039)
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council failing to keep records of two review meetings of Ms X’s child’s Education Health and Care Plan.
The complaint
- Ms X said the Council failed to record the reviews of her child’s Education Health and Care (EHC) Plan held in 2020 and 2021.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Ombudsman investigates complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact 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 or may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide:
- we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
- further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
- Under the information sharing agreement between the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman and the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted), we will share this decision with Ofsted.
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- The Council accepts it failed to keep records of the two meetings in 2020 and 2021. It also took too long to respond to Ms X’s request to escalate her upheld complaint to the second stage of its complaint procedure. That was fault. But Ms X has not claimed her child lost out on any provision she wanted to be added after either review. Therefore, the Council’s apology is a sufficient remedy for any injustice caused.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because the remedy offered by the Council is sufficient for any injustice caused by the fault. Further investigation would not be likely to add to the Council’s own investigation or to lead to a different outcome.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman