Summary: Miss X complained about the Council’s delays during the Education, Health and Care needs assessment process for her daughter. We find the Council was at fault for failing to meet statutory deadlines during the assessment. This has caused Miss X frustration and uncertainty. The Council has agreed to our recommendations to apologise to Miss X and make a payment to her for the injustice caused.

The complaint

1. Miss X complained about the Council’s delays during the Education, Health and care (EHC) needs assessment process for her daughter (Y). She says this caused anxiety and distress. She also says it has adversely affected Y’s development.

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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 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)
3. 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)
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 evidence provided by Miss X and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
6. Miss X and the Council now have an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I will consider their comments before making a final decision.

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What I found

Relevant law and statutory guidance

7. 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 should be made to meet them.
8. Statutory guidance ‘Special educational needs and disability code of practice: 0 to 25 years’ (‘the Code’) sets out the process for carrying out EHC needs 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);  

9. 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). Those consulted have a maximum of six weeks to provide the advice. 

What happened

10. The Council received an application to complete an EHC needs assessment for Y in mid-December 2023. The Council agreed to complete the assessment. It asked for advice for professionals, including an EP, in late January 2024.
11. Miss X complained to the Council in June about the delays in completing the EHC needs assessment. The Council responded and said it was waiting for an EP to assess Y. The delay was due to the national shortage of EPs. It said it had a recruitment campaign for more EPs, and it was using locum/agency EPs.
12. Miss X replied and said she wanted an update on when an EP would see Y. The Council responded in July and said it could not provide a date. However, it was likely it would be in the Autumn term.
13. Miss X referred her complaint to this office in late January 2025 as the Council still had not decided whether it would issue Y with an EHC Plan.
14. The EP assessed Y and produced their report in late March. The Council emailed Miss X a few days later and agreed to issue Y with an EHC Plan.
15. The Council issued Y’s draft EHC Plan in early April. It issued the final EHC Plan at the end of April.

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Analysis

16. We expect councils to follow statutory timescales when dealing with a request for an EHC needs assessment. In this case, the Council significantly exceeded the timescales. It should have issued Y’s final EHC Plan by early May 2024. It did not do so until late April 2025. This is a nearly a 12-month delay and is fault.
17. I acknowledge the difficulties the Council has faced in getting EP advice which is a national problem. I also recognise the Council introduced an EP assessment backlog delivery plan in December 2024 which we are satisfied with. However, the Council has a duty to meet the statutory deadlines. That it has not done so is a service failure. This service failure has caused Miss X frustration and uncertainty. I have made recommendations to address this injustice.

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Agreed action

18. By 13 August 2025 the Council has agreed to:

• Apologise to Miss X for her frustration and uncertainty.
• Pay Miss X £1,200 (calculated at £100 per month) to reflect the frustration and uncertainty caused by the delay in issuing Y’s final EHC Plan.

19. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Decision

20. There was fault by the Council, which caused Miss X an injustice. The Council has agreed to my recommendations and so I have completed my investigation.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman