City of Doncaster Council (24 006 978)
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We have upheld this complaint because the Council delayed issuing an Education Health and Care Plan for a child. The Council has agreed to resolve the complaint by making a suitable payment to the complainant to remedy the injustice its delays caused.
The complaint
- Miss X complains that the Council has delayed issuing an Education Health and Care (EHC) plan for her child and about poor communication during the process.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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 significant injustice, or that could cause injustice to others in the future we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended.
- Under our information sharing agreement, we will share this decision with the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (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
- If we were to investigate this complaint it is likely that we would find fault causing an injustice. This is because the Council delayed issuing a final EHC Plan and it has accepted that there had been issues with its communication with Miss X. The Council apologised to Miss X, but I do not consider that this provided a full remedy for the injustice caused to Miss X.
- I therefore recommended that within one month the Council offers to make a payment to Miss X of £150 to remedy the distress its delays and poor communication caused her. To its credit, the Council agreed to my recommendation.
Final decision
- We have upheld Mrs X’s complaint. The Council has agreed to resolve the matter by providing a suitable remedy.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman