Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council conducted an Education, Health, and Care Plan annual review, or how it responded to a request for a personal budget. Further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained the Council did not treat the contact he had with the Council about his son’s Education, Health, and Care (EHC) Plan, as an appeal, after it issued a decision. Mr X said this meant he was denied an opportunity to appeal, and his son has now missed education provision he may have had.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate 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 continue an investigation if we decide further investigation would not lead to a different outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. In March 2023, after an annual EHC review, the Council told Mr X it would make no changes to his son’s EHC Plan and maintain it. It set out Mr X had the right to appeal this decision. Mr X said in April, he told the Council he was unhappy about part of the content. Later the Council sent Mr X some information about how to ask for a personal budget.
6. Mr X subsequently complained to the Council saying it had not followed the statutory process relating to finalising the EHC Plan, or how it addressed his request for a personal budget. He said because of this he had not been given a proper right of appeal. The Council investigated Mr X’s complaint and in conclusion said:
• It had properly given him a right to appeal the 2023 EHC Plan;
• it had not told him how to appeal its decision about the personal budget, and;
• it would now re-issue this decision and give Mr X a right to ask for a review.
7. The Council upheld Mr X’s complaint about his request for a personal budget and apologised he had to pursue his complaint through the Council’s complaint procedures. It also offered Mr X a financial remedy for his injustice and explained to him how this offer followed our guidance on remedies.
8. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because the Council has taken actions in response to Mr X’s complaint, including giving an explanation, upholding his complaint and offering a financial remedy. That being the case, any further investigation by us would not lead to a different outcome.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint, because further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman