Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about delay in an Education Health and Care Needs Assessment and the Council’s decision not to obtain a Speech and Language assessment. This is because investigation would not add anything significant to the response the Council has already made, or lead to a different outcome.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mrs X, complains that her child’s Education Health and Care Needs Assessment (EHCNA) was delayed, and that the Council was at fault in failing to obtain a Speech and Language assessment.

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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 effect 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 an investigation if we decide the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
3. We cannot investigate a complaint if someone has appealed to a tribunal about the same matter. We also cannot investigate a complaint if in doing so we would overlap with the role of a tribunal to decide something which has been or could have been referred to it to resolve using its own powers. (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.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. Mrs X’s child has special educational needs and an Education Health and Care (EHC) plan. Mrs X’s complaint relates to the EHCNA the Council carried out, which was subject to delay. The process, which should take a maximum of 20 weeks to conclude, took 28. She says this caused distress and uncertainty, and delayed the identification of her child’s needs and suitable provision.
8. Mrs X further complains that the Council failed to obtain a Speech and Language assessment in the course of the EHCNA, despite professional advice to do so. She has obtained a report privately.
9. In settlement of her complaint, Mrs X says she wants the Council to apologise, and to incorporate the Speech and Language assessment she obtained into the EHC plan.
10. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint. The correspondence Mrs X has provided shows that the Council has acknowledged and apologised for the delay in issuing the EHC plan and has offered a symbolic payment of £200 in recognition of it. This is a proportionate remedy and is in line with what we would regard as appropriate in the circumstances of the case. Our intervention is not therefore warranted.
11. The Council says it acted on the advice of health professionals in deciding not to obtain a Speech and Language assessment. The Ombudsman can express no view on whether this was an appropriate course of action. The evidence used in an EHCNA is intrinsically related to the content of the resulting EHC plan, and this is not an area on which we will comment. This is because the content of an EHC plan carries the right to appeal to the Tribunal. This is the appropriate route by which to challenge the content of an EHC plan. Mrs X has used that right and, by law, this places all matters relating to the content of the EHC plan outside the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because investigation would not add anything significant to the response the Council has already made, or lead to a different outcome.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman