Summary: Ms C complains the Council delayed in completing an Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan which resulted in her daughter, B, missing educational support. Ms C also complains the Council has not repaid her for a privately arranged educational psychology report and private tuition costs. The Council has accepted delays in completing an EHC Plan. It has agreed to apologise to Ms C, make a symbolic payment and repay Ms C for tuition costs and the cost of a private educational psychology report.

The complaint

1. Ms C complains the Council delayed in completing an Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan which resulted in her daughter, B, missing educational support. Ms C also complains the Council has not repaid her for a privately arranged educational psychology report and private tuition costs.
2. Because of these faults Ms C says B has missed education provision and she has had to pay for tuition and an educational psychology report for B to get the education she needs.

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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 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)
4. Under our information sharing agreement, we will share this decision with the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted).
5. If we are satisfied with an organisation’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered evidence provided by Ms C and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
7. Ms C and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments received before making a final decision.

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What I found

What should happen

8. A child or young person with special educational needs may have an Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan. This document sets out the child’s needs and what arrangements are needed to meet them
9. Statutory guidance ‘Special educational needs and disability code of practice: 0 to 25 years’ (‘the Code’) sets out the process for carrying out EHC assessments and producing EHC Plans. The guidance is based on the Children and Families Act 2014 and the SEN Regulations 2014. It says the following: 

• Where the council receives a request for an EHC needs assessment it must decide whether to agree to the assessment and send its decision to the parent of the child or the young person within six weeks. 
• The process of assessing needs and developing EHC Plans “must be carried out in a timely manner”. Steps must be completed as soon as practicable. 
• If the council goes on to carry out an assessment, it must decide whether to issue an EHC Plan or refuse to issue a Plan within 16 weeks.
• If the council goes on to issue an EHC Plan, the whole process from the point when an assessment is requested until the final EHC Plan is issued must take no more than 20 weeks (unless certain specific circumstances apply). 

10. As part of the assessment, councils must gather advice from relevant professionals (SEND Regulation 6(1)). This includes psychological advice and information from an Educational Psychologist (EP). 

What happened

11. Ms C asked the Council for an EHC Plan assessment on 13 June 2024 for B. Following mediation the Council agreed to assess B on 2 August. The Council issued a draft plan on 7 February 2025, a final plan on 19 March, and final amended plan on 20 March.
12. The Council accepts there was delay in issuing a final plan. It says this was due to a shortage of Educational Psychologists (EPs). The Council also accepts it used Ms C’s privately arranged and funded EP report. This was the only EP report used for the assessment.
13. B attended school throughout the delay. Ms C says she paid for tutoring/mentoring to ensure B went to school.
14. Ms C complained to the Council about the delay in assessing B for an EHC Plan and its refusal to refund her EP report and tutoring/mentoring costs. In response the Council apologised for the delay and offered a symbolic payment of £150.
15. Ms C escalated her complaint to the Ombudsman. In the Council’s response to our enquiries it agreed to repay the tutoring/mentoring costs and increase the symbolic payment for delay in line with our guidance of £100 per month. The Council did not consider it appropriate to pay for the private EP report as it says it puts people who are able to pay for private reports at an unfair advantage.

Was there fault causing injustice?

16. The Council should have produced a final plan by 31 October 2024, there was therefore a delay of four months and two weeks. The Council has accepted there was delay in B’s EHC Plan and says this was because of a shortage of EPs. The Ombudsman can make findings of fault where there is a failure to provide a service regardless of the reasons for the service failure. While I accept the reasons for the delay, this is fault.
17. The Council has agreed to pay Ms C a symbolic payment of £100 per month for the period of the delay. This is in line with our remedies guidance.
18. The Council has accepted B needed the private mentoring/tutoring to continue attending school; and has therefore agreed to repay tuition/mentoring costs. As the Council has offered to remedy this element of the complaint I have not investigated this further.
19. The Council accepts it relied on the privately commissioned EP report but is unwilling to refund the cost of the report. I consider because the Council solely relied on the EP report, and there was no other option available, the Council on this occasion should refund the cost of the privately commissioned EP report.

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Action

20. I have found fault in the actions of the Council which has caused B and Ms C injustice. The Council says a national shortage of Educational Psychologists caused the delays in the assessment process. It says it has taken several steps to improve the situation. We have previously found the Council has acted to respond to the increased demand for EHC needs assessments and to manage the shortage of Educational Psychologists. As these actions are current I have made no service improvement recommendations for this part of the complaint.
21. I consider the actions below are suitable to remedy the personal injustice caused to Ms C and B and to improve future practice.
22. Within one month of the final decision the Council will:-
1. apologise to Ms C for the distress caused by delay, and her frustration and time in having to arrange extra support for B; this should be in line with our Guidance on remedies - Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman
2. pay Ms C £450 to recognise the distress, frustration and uncertainty caused to her and B by the Council’s failure to issue B with a final EHC plan in line with statutory timescales. This remedy is roughly £100 per month from the date the Council should have issued the final EHC plan in October 2024 until the date it issued the final plan in March 2025;
3. on provision of an invoice repay the cost of the Education Psychology report.
23. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Decision

24. I find fault causing injustice. I have now ended my investigation and closed the complaint of the basis of the actions above.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman