Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about delays by the Council in issuing an Education, Health and Care Plan. This is because the Council has already offered a suitable remedy for injustice caused by the delay and further investigation by us is unlikely to achieve anything more.

The complaint

1. Ms X complained the Council delayed carrying out an Education, Health and Care (EHC) assessment and issuing an EHC Plan for her child, Y. She said the Council’s actions caused distress for her family and delayed her child starting school.
2. Ms X also complained about the conduct of a Council staff member and said they were unprofessional in emails.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word fault to refer to these. Service failure can happen when an organisation fails to provide a service as it should have done because of circumstances outside its control. We do not need to show any blame, intent, flawed policy or process, or bad faith by an organisation to say service failure (fault) has occurred. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1), as amended)
4. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we are satisfied with the actions an organisation has taken or proposes to take. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(7), as amended)

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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. In December 2023, Ms X asked the Council to complete an EHC needs assessment for her child, Y. The Council agreed it would do this.
8. In October 2024, Ms X complained to the Council because it had still not completed the assessment and decided if it was going to issue an EHC Plan.
9. The Council accepted it had not completed the assessment within the legal timescales and said this was because of difficulty in arranging an Educational Psychologist (EP) assessment due to national shortages of EPs. It upheld her complaint and said, after it completed the assessment, it would consider paying her a financial remedy to acknowledge the delay.
10. Ms X accepted the Council’s offer and in March 2025, the Council paid £100 for each month the legal timescales to issue an EHC Plan had passed, totalling £1,200.
11. The Council also paid Ms X £300 to remedy delays in its complaint response.
12. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about delays to the EHC assessment and Plan because the Council has upheld her complaint and already offered a suitable remedy for any injustice caused by the delay. Further investigation by us would therefore not be proportionate.
13. We are satisfied the Council is taking action to deal with the issues caused by a lack of EPs. In response to our findings in a previous case, it sent us an action plan of its service improvements. As there are no wider public interest issues, further investigation by us into this specific matter in how the Council are trying to improve its service, would be unlikely to achieve anything more.
14. Additionally, in its complaint response, the Council partially upheld Ms X’s complaint about a staff member’s conduct. It said it would offer training for all staff on conduct and professionalism. We will not investigate this issue as further investigation by us is unlikely to achieve anything more.

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Final decision

15. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because the Council has upheld her complaint and has already agreed to remedy any injustice caused by delays. Further investigation by us would be unlikely to achieve anything more.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman