Summary: Mrs X complains about delay in the education, health and care plan process for her son. Mrs X says the Council failed to meet statutory timescales and failed to respond to her communications. The Council has agreed to apologise, make a payment to Mrs X and issue a reminder to officers as a satisfactory remedy.

The complaint

1. Mrs X says the Council failed to issue an education, health and care plan (EHC Plan) for her son within the statutory timescales and failed to respond to her various communications.
2. Mrs X says the delay has caused her frustration and distress and left Y without suitable education.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. If there has been fault which has caused an injustice, we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
4. If we are satisfied with an organisation’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)
5. 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

6. As part of the investigation, I have:
• considered the complaint and discussed the complaint with Mrs X; and
• considered the comments and documents the Council provided.
7. Mrs X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments received before making a final decision.

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What I found

What should have happened

8. A child or young person with special educational needs may have an EHC Plan. This document sets out the child’s needs and what arrangements should be made to meet them. The EHC Plan is set out in sections. We cannot direct changes to the sections about their needs, education, or the name of the educational placement. Only the tribunal or Council can do this.
9. The special educational needs code of practice (code of practice) says following a request for an EHC needs assessment, the local authority must determine whether an EHC needs assessment is necessary. The local authority must make a decision and communicate the decision to the child’s parent or to the young person within 6 weeks of receiving the request.
10. The code of practice says the whole process of EHC needs assessment and EHC Plan development, from the point when an assessment is requested (or a child or young person is brought to the local authority’s attention) until the final EHC Plan is issued, must take no more than 20 weeks (subject to exemptions).
11. The Council’s complaints procedure says it will provide a full response within 20 working days. The complaints procedure says that in exceptional circumstances that timescale may be extended. If it will take longer the Council will contact the person that has complained to explain why and to keep them informed.

What happened

12. Mrs X’s son, Y, is autistic and has special educational needs. Mrs X says she requested an EHC needs assessment on 24 August 2023.
13. The Council completed the EHC needs assessment and agreed to issue an EHC Plan for Y. The records show the Council received advice from a speech and language therapist in October 2023 and educational psychologist in November 2023.
14. The Council issued a draft EHC Plan in January 2024.
15. Mrs X complained to the Council on 26 February, about delays in sending a final EHC Plan. The Council responded to the complaint on 10 May and acknowledged that it had failed to adhere to statutory timescales, due to responses received from schools, staff absence and high workloads. It apologised to Mrs X.
16. Mrs X remained unsatisfied and asked for her complaint to be escalated. The Council responded to the complaint on 17 June and apologised for poor communication and inappropriate behaviour from staff. The Council explained it had consulted with a wide range of special schools but there had been a negative response to the consultations. The Council said it would continue to look for a placement for Y.
17. Mrs X complained to the Ombudsman in June. The Council issued a final EHC Plan on 1 August which named a special school.

Analysis

18. Mrs X says the Council delayed sending a final EHC Plan for her son. The Council accepts there were delays in the process and points to negative responses to consultations, staff absence and high workloads as the reasons for that. The Council has apologised to Mrs X for the delay.
19. As explained in paragraph 10, the code of practice is clear about the timescales for issuing a final EHC Plan.
20. The Council did not issue the final EHC Plan until 1 August 2024. That is more than six months longer than the process should have taken based on Mrs X’s request for an EHC needs assessment on 24 August 2023. The Council should have issued a final Plan by 11 January 2024. The delay is fault.
21. Mrs X says due to the delays Y has missed out on attending settling in sessions at the specialist school that took place in June and July. It also caused avoidable distress and uncertainty for Mrs X.
22. Mrs X says the Council failed to respond to her communications chasing what was happening with the EHC Plan. The Council has already apologised to Mrs X in its complaint response. I am satisfied with this.
23. The Council also delayed responding to Mrs X’s complaint. The Council received the complaint on 26 February 2024. However, the Council failed to respond to the complaint until 10 May 2024. The delay is fault.

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Agreed action

24. To remedy the injustice caused to Mrs X by the faults identified in this statement, within four weeks of my final decision, the Council will:

• apologise to Mrs X for the delay in responding to her complaint;

• pay Mrs X £600 (calculated at £100 per month) in recognition of the frustration, uncertainty and distress caused by the delay in issuing a final EHC Plan;

• pay Mrs X an additional £100 in recognition of the loss of educational support, as Y was unable to attend settling in sessions;

• remind officers dealing with an EHC Plan that the timescales set out in the code of practice are followed; and

• remind officers dealing with complaints of the need to ensure complaint responses are issued within the published timescales and, where delays occur, ensure those that have complained are kept up to date with what is happening.

25. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Final decision

26. I have completed my investigation. There was fault by the Council. The action I have recommended is a suitable remedy for the injustice caused.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman