Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council delaying its decision about an Education, Health, and Care Plan for Mrs X’s child. Nor will we investigate Mrs X’s complaint it did not do enough to secure suitable education provision, while her child was out of school. The Council have upheld her complaints and made an offer of a suitable remedy for Mrs X’s injustice. Therefore, further investigation by us would not be proportionate, because we are unlikely to achieve anything more.

The complaint

1. Mrs X was unhappy the Council took to long to make a decision about whether it would issue and Education, Health, and Care (EHC) Plan, for her child (Y). She was also unhappy the Council did not do enough when she made it aware Y was not going to school and only receiving part-time alternative provision (AP).
2. Mrs X said this caused her stress and caused Y to become more isolated and fall behind academically.

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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 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)

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

6. Mrs X was unhappy and complained at the length of time the Council took, to decide whether it would issue an EHC Plan for Y. The Council upheld her complaint about this.
7. If we were to investigate this part of Mrs X’s complaint, it is likely we would find fault, causing an injustice to Mrs X, because the Council’s eventual decision was around 11 weeks late. We therefore asked the Council to remedy Mrs X’s injustice for delays and resolve her complaint early. To its credit, the Council agreed to pay Mrs X a symbolic financial remedy in line with our request.
8. Mrs X also complained the Council did not do enough to secure AP for Y, during a period they were not going to school. The Council wrote back to Mrs X and upheld part of her complaint about this period. It accepted it had not ensured Y was receiving sufficient suitable education and made a further offer of a symbolic financial remedy for this part of Mrs X’s complaint.
9. Because the Council has agreed to our earlier request relating to delays in its decision about Y’s EHC Plan and had already made a suitable offer of a remedy for Mrs X’s injustice relating to AP, before we considered that complaint, it is not proportionate for us to investigate any of Mrs X’s complaint. This is because further investigation by us is unlikely to achieve anything more.

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Actions

10. The Council have agreed (within four weeks of my decision), to remedy Mrs X’s injustice, that it will:
• Pay her £200 for delays in its decision to issue Y’s EHC Plan.
• Pay her £5100 for missed education provision, for Y.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because the Council have already agreed to remedy any remaining injustice, and it would not be proportionate for us to investigate because we could not achieve anything more.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman