Summary: We will not investigate Ms X and Ms Y’s complaint about the Council’s handling of their son’s Education Health and Care Plan review. This is because the matter did not cause the complainants significant enough injustice to warrant investigation.

The complaint

1. The complaints, Ms X and Ms Y, complain the Council refused their initial request for a review of their son Y’s Education Health and Care (EHC) Plan, delayed in issuing its decision on whether to amend the Plan to account for Y’s post-16 provision and did not send them a copy of the final Plan until almost two months after it was issued. They are now happy with the contents of the EHC Plan but say they suffered three months of unnecessary uncertainty as a result of the Council’s actions.

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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 effect 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 an investigation if we decide the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by Ms X and Ms Y’s representative, Ms Z, and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

4. We do not investigate all the complaints we receive. In deciding whether to investigate we need to consider various tests. These include the alleged injustice to the person complaining. We only investigate the most serious complaints.
5. I appreciate Ms X and Ms Y suffered some uncertainty as a result of the actions they complain about but their uncertainty is not significant enough to warrant investigation at this time.

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Final decision

6. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because the injustice Ms X and Ms Y claim is not significant enough to warrant investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman