Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about delays issuing her child’s Education Health and Care Plan. This is because the Council has issued a final plan, apologised and made a suitable payment to remedy any injustice caused. Further investigation would therefore not lead to a different outcome.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains that the Council delayed issuing an amended Education Health and Care (EHC) Plan for her child following a review held in March 2024. Mrs X was unhappy with the contents of proposed draft EHC Plans and felt her appeal rights were being frustrated.

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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 further investigation would not lead to a different outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
3. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone has a right of appeal, reference or review to a tribunal about the same matter. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to use this right. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)
4. The First-tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability) considers appeals against council decisions regarding special educational needs. We refer to it as the Tribunal in this decision statement.

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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. The Council has now issued a final EHC Plan, apologised to Mrs X for the delay and offered to make a payment to her of £600 to remedy the injustice caused by the delay. Upon considering comments from Mrs X, it has issued an amended final EHC Plan with changes to Section A.
8. I will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint. This is because the actions taken by the Council in responding to her complaint are appropriate and in line with what we would expect to achieve if we were to investigate. For this reason, further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.
9. I will not investigate Mrs X’s concerns about the contents of the EHC Plan. This is because she has a right of appeal to the SEND Tribunal, and it is reasonable for her to use that appeal right.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because doing so would not lead to a different outcome.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman