Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the delay in issuing the complainant’s child with an Education Health and Care plan. This is because the Council has agreed to provide an appropriate remedy for the injustice caused by the delay.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mrs X, complains that the Council has delayed issuing her child with an Education Health and Care (EHC) plan.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word fault to refer to these. Service failure can happen when an organisation fails to provide a service as it should have done because of circumstances outside its control. We do not need to show any blame, intent, flawed policy or process, or bad faith by an organisation to say service failure (fault) has occurred. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1), as amended)
3. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we are satisfied with the actions an organisation has taken or proposes to take. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(7), as amended)
4. Under our information sharing agreement, we will share this decision with the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. The Council is carrying out an assessment of Mrs X’s child’s education, health and care needs. It has failed to do so within the statutory timescale. The delay currently stands at six months and is ongoing.
8. The Council has accepted it has taken longer than it should have to complete the process, which it attributes in part to the shortage of educational psychologists. This fault on the Council’s part has caused Mrs X injustice in the form of distress and uncertainty.
9. The Council has previously assured the Ombudsman of the actions it is taking to address delays in the assessment process. We are therefore satisfied that the Council has a plan to address this issue.
10. In complaints such as this, we consider a symbolic payment of £100 to be a suitable remedy for each month of delay. We therefore invited the Council to remedy this injustice by offering to make a payment, within four weeks of the date of this decision, of £600 to reflect the delay, and to pay a further £100 per month until the final EHC plan is issued.
11. To its credit, the Council has agreed to do so. As it has accepted the remedy we have proposed, and is taking reasonable steps to address the substantive matter, there are no grounds for us to investigate.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because the Council has agreed to provide a suitable remedy for the injustice caused.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman