Summary: We have upheld this complaint about the assessment of a child’s educational needs and delayed payments to tuition providers. The Council has agreed to resolve the complaint by offering to make a suitable payment to the complainant to remedy the injustice this caused.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains that the Council refused to fully reimburse her for an Educational Psychologist report she obtained privately, in support of her son, Z’s, Education Health and Care (EHC) needs assessment. Miss X also complains the Council delayed making payments for the delivery of her son’s educational provision and that its communications were poor.

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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)
3. We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
4. 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

5. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. If we were to investigate this complaint it is likely that we would find fault. This is because the Council accepted that a report from an Educational Psychologist was required and used the one obtained by Miss X. Therefore, it should have reimbursed her for the full costs.
8. Also, when responding to Miss X’s complaint, the Council accepted there were delays making payments to Z’s tutors. Whilst the Council did apologise, this is likely to have caused Miss X distress in the form of uncertainty that wasn’t remedied.
9. I therefore asked the Council to write to Miss X within one month to apologise and to make a payment to her a payment to her for the full cost of the Educational Psychologist assessment she obtained and to offer a payment of £100 to remedy the distress its delayed payments to tutors caused her. To its credit, the Council agreed.
10. We have recently upheld other complaints about delays with the Council completing EHC needs assessments due to the national shortage of Educational Psychologists and we are satisfied that the Council is taking steps to resolve this issue, and so have therefore not recommended anything further recommendations in regard to this point. 
11. Whilst I acknowledge that delayed communication by the Council is likely to cause a certain level of frustration I do not consider that this alone is a significant enough injustice to warrant investigation.

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Final decision

12. We have upheld this complaint. The Council has agreed to resolve the complaint early by providing an appropriate remedy.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman