Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the Council’s failure to put in place speech and language therapy for her son. This is because the Council has offered a suitable remedy and it is unlikely we would recommend anything more.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mrs X, complains the Council failed to provide the speech and language therapy (SaLT) set out in her son Y’s Education Health and Care (EHC) Plan between March 2023 and January 2024. She says Y instructed solicitors to ensure the Council put in place the SaLT and believes the Council should reimburse his legal fees.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by Mrs X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

4. The Council issued Y an EHC Plan on 28 March 2023 setting out the provision he required to address his special educational needs. Mrs X says it was not the right time for him to start something new so she did not chase the Council for the SaLT listed in the Plan at that point.
5. The school’s special educational needs coordinator tried to put the SaLT in place in October 2023 but Mrs X says they were unsuccessful. Mrs X then contacted the Council about the issue but did not receive a response.
6. Mrs X instructed solicitors in November 2023 to send a ‘pre-action protocol’ letter to the Council threatening legal action if it did not put in place the SaLT set out in the EHC Plan. She says the Council then instructed an independent SaLT provider to contact them but they did not put in place any provision until January 2024 despite chasing both the Council and the provider.
7. The Council acknowledges that it failed to put in place the SaLT required under Y’s EHC Plan until January 2024. It has offered Y £500 for the missed provision and a further £50 for the emotional impact this had on him over the period. It has also offered Mrs X £100 for her time and trouble in pursuing the complaint. Mrs X is not satisfied with the Council’s offer and wants it to reimburse the family for Y’s legal fees, which total more than £900.
8. I appreciate Y missed out on provision he was entitled to under his EHC Plan but the remedy offered by the Council is sufficient for his injustice. Mrs X’s acknowledgement that it was not the right time for him to start something new in March 2023 suggests that even if the Council had offered the provision at that point, Mrs X would not have accepted it. I therefore consider Y missed out on the SaLT for just over one term between September 2023 and January 2024 and £550 is a suitable amount for the injustice this caused Y over the period. The offer of £100 for Mrs X’s time and trouble is also sufficient in the circumstances.
9. While Mrs X took the decision to instruct solicitors in November 2023 the Council is not responsible for the legal fees or under any obligation to reimburse the family for them. Mrs X had the option to make a complaint at the time, which is a free process and does not require legal representation, but she chose instead to issue a ‘pre-action protocol’ letter. I do not therefore consider the legal fees were an unavoidable cost which the Council should reimburse as Mrs X had a reasonable alternative which would not have required any additional expenditure.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because the Council has offered a suitable remedy for the missed provision between September 2023 and January 2024 and it is therefore unlikely further investigation would achieve anything more for Mrs X or Y.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman