Summary: Mrs X complained the Council failed to deliver extra tuition to her child, B. The Council was at fault. It failed to organise provision for B in a timely manner. The Council apologised to Mrs X and made service improvements. It has now agreed to make a symbolic payment to Mrs X, to recognise the distress caused.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complained the Council failed to deliver tuition to her child B. She said B missed a year of provision to prepare her for moving into Year 10 of high school.
2. Mrs X also complained about the Councils failure to communicate properly with her.
3. Mrs X said the Council have let her and B down, and the loss of tuition has caused them much stress.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

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

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How I considered this complaint

7. I considered evidence provided by Mrs X and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
8. 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 and guidance

9. 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. The EHC Plan is set out in sections. We cannot direct changes to the sections about their needs, education, or the name of the educational placement. Only the Tribunal or the council can do this. 
10. The council has a duty to make sure the child or young person receives the special educational provision set out in section F of an EHC Plan (Section 42 Children and Families Act). The Courts have said the duty to arrange this provision is owed personally to the child and is non-delegable. This means if the council asks another organisation to make the provision and that organisation fails to do so, the council remains liable (R v London Borough of Harrow ex parte M [1997] ELR 62), (R v North Tyneside Borough Council [2010] EWCA Civ 135)  
11. 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) 

What happened here

12. B is now in Year 10 of high school. B has an EHC Plan in place and has done for several years. B has a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder and dyspraxia. B attends school routinely.
13. The following is a list of key events relevant to this investigation. It is not a list of everything that happened.
14. In May 2024 B’s EHC Plan annual review meeting took place. It was suggested that additional funding would be useful for B to support them in class and that this might be explored. Both school and Mrs X noted this. The Council explained the process school should follow to apply for the funding. The EHC Plan was maintained. No changes were needed to it.
15. In September school applied to the Council for extra funding for B. In December Mrs X contacted the Council for an update on the application. Mrs X followed this up in writing, in January 2025, contacting the Council via email.
16. The Council said it had not received the application and contacted the school to ask it to re-send it.
17. Mrs X made a formal complaint to the Council. She complained the Council did not respond to the application made by school, in September 2024, for additional funding for B.
18. At the end of January, the Council communicated with both Mrs X and school. The Council said it was gathering information to consider the application for extra funding. It also advised school to organise B’s EHC Plan annual review meeting for 2025.
19. At the start of February, the Council responded to Mrs X’s complaint, at stage one of its complaint procedure. It said the Council failed to receive the application properly. This was fault by the Council. It said this was because of a poor handover between council officers, after a service reconfiguration. It apologised to Mrs X.
20. Mrs X escalated her complaint to stage two of the Councils complaint procedure.
21. In March the Council made its response to Mrs X at stage two of the Councils complaint procedure. It investigated what had happened thoroughly. It explained this to Mrs X. It partially upheld Mrs X’s complaint. It apologised for its failings. It identified four actions to improve its services, that it told Mrs X it would make, because of her complaint. It signposted Mrs X to the Ombudsman.
22. About a week later extra funding was agreed for B by the Council.
23. In April the EHC Plan annual review meeting for 2025 took place. The EHC Plan was maintained. No changes were needed to it. An action was listed for the school to ask the Council again, for funding for additional tuition. The school had still not received a response to its original request.
24. About a week later the Council told the school it had agreed the additional funding.
25. In May the Council sent school the extra funding.

My findings

Delay

26. School made its first application for extra funding at the end of September 2024. Despite Mrs X contacting the Council in December, no action was taken by the Council until Mrs X escalated her concerns, in January 2025. Delay in processing the application caused Mrs X undue distress. There was uncertainty about whether school would receive extra funding which caused Mrs X frustration. If not for the fault, school would have received the extra funding, and B would have had access to extra support sooner. I find fault with how the Council managed the application for extra funding. This fault resulted in undue distress in the form of uncertainty and frustration.
27. In the stage two complaint response, the Council explained to Mrs X school already had a robust package in place for B. B was receiving what was outlined in her EHC Plan. B was attending school.
28. The Council conducted a thorough investigation into Mrs X’s complaint about delay in responding to the application for extra funding. It identified the cause of the issue. The first delay was down to email inboxes not being efficiently managed at the point of staff handovers. The service was being reconfigured at the same time. The Council identified opportunities it could have minimized the delay and points it should have acted sooner. The Council outlined service improvements that would be made to avoid this happening again. The Council made an apology to Mrs X. It recognised the impact of its failings on her and B.

Communication

29. The Council acknowledged that communication with Mrs X had been inconsistent. This will have heightened the frustration experienced by Mrs X, when she was trying to get a response from the Council. The Council apologised for this. I find fault with the Council for how it communicated with Mrs X. The apology made by the Council is a sufficient remedy for the injustice caused by this.
30. Mrs X’s main communication-based complaint was about the Councils failure to tell her about funding it agreed for B in a timely manner. However, I do not find fault with the Council for failing to communicate this. The Council communicated with school in a timely manner. It organised the tuition outside of the EHC Plan annual review process. From January 2025 it responded properly and took the suitable steps to consider, and action the application. Evidence shows the school received the funding in May 2025.
31. Mrs X believed the Council made different decisions about whether B could have access to a tutor, and the amount of tuition it would assign her. This was not the case. Evidence reviewed as part of this investigation showed the Council agreed the funding in March 2025, and the amount did not change between March and July.
32. The type of tuition or support B received (through use of the extra funding) was not a matter for the Council to decide. How the school chose to use this to best support B, was a matter for the school, in consultation with Mrs X, to agree upon.

Service Improvement

33. In the Councils stage one complaint response it told Mrs X the application was not properly received partly due to service reconfiguration. As part of this investigation, I asked the Council for an update on the service reconfiguration.
34. The Council shared an update of the improvements made to fulfilling its duties regarding EHC Plan processes. It shared successes in improving timeliness. It acknowledged challenges in retention of staff and recruitment. It explained how it will take learning from other Council areas, to inform the next stage of the service reconfiguration.
35. In the Councils stage two complaint response it told Mrs X about service improvements it intended to make because of learning from her complaint. As part of this investigation, I asked the Council for an update on this.
36. The Council has improved the way it handles complaints and prioritises work. It shared updates to the systems in place for complaint handling, daily, to ensure responses are made on time.
37. The Council has also developed the process in place for ensuring email accounts are appropriately managed, both to account for absences, and when staff members leave their posts.
38. I am satisfied the Council made a thorough and robust response to Mrs X’s complaint that led to services being improved. I will not be making any service improvement recommendations as part of this investigation. I am also satisfied the Council made several meaningful apologies to Mrs X, for the fault it, and later, this investigation, identified.

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Action

39. To remedy the injustice to Mrs X, and B from fault by the Council, within four weeks of a final decision, the Council has agreed to take the following action:
• make a symbolic payment to Mrs X of £200. This is to recognise the distress caused by failure to process the application for additional funding properly, which resulted in delay in additional support being provided to B.
40. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Decision

41. I find fault causing injustice. The Council has agreed actions to remedy injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman