Summary: Mrs X complains the Council delayed issuing her daughter’s Education Health and Care (EHC) Plan following a review. The Council did not issue the EHC Plan within the correct timescales and did not follow its complaints procedure. Mrs X suffered uncertainty and avoidable distress and her complaint was delayed. The Council offered to pay Mrs X £500 for her time and trouble and £500 for avoidable distress. This is an appropriate remedy.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Mrs X, complains the Council failed to deal with her daughter’s education properly because it has not completed an EHC Plan annual review in the correct timescales
2. Mrs X says she suffered uncertainty and avoidable distress and has to spend time and trouble chasing the Council’s late complaint response.

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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 an injustice, we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
4. 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)
5. 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

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

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What I found

Law, guidance and policies

8. The council must arrange for the EHC Plan to be reviewed at least once a year to make sure it is up to date. The council must complete the review within 12 months of the first EHC Plan and within 12 months of any later reviews. The annual review begins with consulting the child’s parents or the young person and the educational placement. A review meeting must then take place. The process is only complete when the council issues its decision to amend, maintain or discontinue the EHC Plan. This must happen within four weeks of the meeting. (Section 20(10) Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014 and SEN Code paragraph 9.176) 
9. If the council decides not to amend an EHC Plan or decides to cease to maintain it, it must inform the child’s parents or the young person of their right to appeal the decision to the tribunal.
10. Where the council proposes to amend an EHC Plan, the law says it must send the child’s parent or the young person a copy of the existing (non-amended) Plan and an accompanying notice providing details of the proposed amendments, including copies of any evidence to support the proposed changes. (Section 22(2) Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014 and SEN Code paragraph 9.194). Case law sets out this should happen within four weeks of the date of the review meeting. Case law also found councils must issue the final amended EHC Plan within a further eight weeks.
11. The council must review and amend an EHC Plan in enough time before to a child or young person moved between key phases of education. This allows planning for and, where necessary, commissioning of support and provision at the new institution. The review and any amendments must be completed by 15 February in the calendar year in which the child is due to transfer into or between school phases. The key transfers are: 

• early years provider to school;  
• infant school to junior school;  
• primary school to middle school;  
• primary school to secondary school; and  
• middle school to secondary school.  

What happened?

12. This is a brief chronology of key events. It does not contain everything I reviewed during my investigation.
13. In July 2024, the Council completed an emergency review of Mrs X’s daughter’s EHC Plan. The outcome was that the EHC Plan should be amended from a mainstream education setting to an Enhanced Resource Setting.
14. Mrs X complained to the Council in October 2024 that nothing had happened since the review took place.
15. In January Mrs X chased the Council for a complaint response. The Council apologised and said it would reply by mid-February 2025.
16. Mrs X complained at stage 2 of the Council’s complaints procedure because it had not provided a complaint response by the deadline it said it would.
17. The Council responded to Mrs X’s complaint at the end of February 2025. It fully upheld her complaint and offered a remedy.
18. The Council has issued a final EHC Plan for Mrs X’s daughter in April 2025.

Analysis

19. The Council accepted that it did not complete the EHC Plan annual review in the expected timeframe and that this impacted on education provision being identified for Mrs X’s daughter’s phased transfer to secondary school.
20. The Council accepted that it did not respond to Mrs X’s initial complaint and there were further delays to receiving a complaint response.
21. The Council apologised to Mrs X for its poor communication and offered her £500 for time and trouble and £500 for avoidable distress.
22. I consider this an appropriate remedy.

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Action

23. To remedy the outstanding injustice caused by the fault I have identified, the Council has agreed to take the following action within 4 weeks of this decision:
• Apologise to Mrs X for the fault found. We publish guidance on remedies which sets out our expectations for how organisations should apologise effectively to remedy injustice. The organisation should consider this guidance in making the apology I have recommended in my findings.
• Pay Mrs X £500 for time and trouble and £500 for avoidable distress.
24. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Decision

25. I find fault causing injustice. The Council has offered an appropriate remedy.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman