Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X complaint about how the Council dealt with a review of her child’s Education Health and Care (EHC) Plan. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault and because further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains about the Council dealt with a review of her chid Z’s Education Health and Care (EHC) Plan. She says the Council failed to send her a final EHC Plan until shortly before the end of the school year meaning her son did not have sufficient time to transition to a new school and frustrating her right of appeal.

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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:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or

(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 the complainant and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. I will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint that the Council delayed issuing an final EHC plan for Z. The Council sent the final plan by email to the address it held on file for Mrs X naming a mainstream school. This is in line with the timelines in place for children during a phase transfer year and therefore there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.
6. The Council did accept that it didn’t keep Mrs X informed of the outcome of consultations it made with schools before issuing the final plan and put in steps to ensure this didn’t happen again. It also accepted that an annual review hadn’t taken place, whilst Mrs X’s appeal to the SEND Tribunal was ongoing. It raised this with the school to ensure a review was arranged. On balance I do not consider that further investigation into these points would lead to a different outcome as we would unlikely achieve anything more than what the Council has already agreed to do.

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Final decision

7. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault and because further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman