Summary: Mrs Y complained about the way the Council dealt with her child, Z’s special educational needs and educational provision following a move to the Council’s area. We have found fault causing injustice by the Council in failing to: place Z temporarily at another school; secure their special educational needs provision; and make suitable alternative provision following the transfer of their Education, Health and Care Plan. The Council has agreed to remedy this by: apologising to Mrs Y and Z; making payments to reflect the distress caused and the impact of the missed education on Z; and service improvements.

The complaint

1. Mrs Y complains about the way the Council dealt with Z’s special educational needs and educational provision following her family’s move to the Council’s area in November 2024. She says the Council failed to provide Z with:
1. a placement and special educational needs provision as set out in their EHC Plan transferred from their previous council; and
2. suitable alternative provision during the period before they were able to start at their new placement.
2. Because of the Council’s delays and failures, Mrs Y says Z missed out on most of their education for the school year 2024/2025. This has had a huge impact on Z, their wellbeing and future educational progress, and also on the family. She was unable to work while Z was without a full-time placement.
3. Mrs Y wants the Council to make proper redress for the effect of its failures on Z and the family.

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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.
5. 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)
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)
7. 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

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

What should have happened

EHC Plan 

10. 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.
11. 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).

Transfer of EHC Plan between councils 

12. Where a child or young person moves to another council, the ‘old’ council must transfer the EHC Plan to the ‘new’ council on the day of the move. The new council is then responsible for maintaining the plan and securing the special educational needs (SEN) provision set out in it.
13. The requirement for the child to attend the educational placement specified in the plan continues after the transfer. But where attendance would be impractical the new council must place the child temporarily at an appropriate educational placement other than specified until the EHC Plan is formally amended.
14. The new council must review the EHC Plan either within 12 months of it last being reviewed or three months of the date of the transfer, whichever is the later date. (Section 15 Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014)  

Alternative education provision

15. Councils must arrange suitable education at school or elsewhere for pupils who are out of school because of exclusion, illness or for other reasons, if they would not receive suitable education without such arrangements. We refer to this as section 19 or alternative education provision.
16. The statutory guidance ‘Ensuring a good education for children who cannot attend school because of health needs’ says the duty to provide a suitable education applies “to all children of compulsory school age resident in the council area, whether or not they are on the roll of a school, and whatever type of school they attend”.
17. Suitable education means efficient education suitable to a child’s age, ability and aptitude and to any special educational needs he may have. (Education Act 1996, section 19(6)). It must be full-time unless the council determines that full-time education would not be in the child’s best interests for reasons of the child’s physical or mental health. (Education Act 1996, section 3A and 3AA)
18. The law does not define full-time education but children with health needs should have provision which is equivalent to the education they would receive in school. If they receive one-to-one tuition, for example, the hours of face-to-face provision could be fewer as the provision is more concentrated.

What happened

19. I have set out a summary of the key events below. It is not meant to show everything that happened. It is based on my review of all the evidence provided about this complaint.

Background

20. Z had an EHC Plan issued by Council B. Their final EHC Plan issued on 3 June 2024 named a specialist school as their placement with the specified SEN provision being delivered through the school.
21. Mrs Y, Z and the family planned a move from Council B into the Council’s area, some considerable distance away.
22. Mrs Y says she contacted the Council before the move about the arrangements for Z’s education. It told her it could not take any steps until they had completed their move.

November 2024: Z’s move to the Council’s area

23. The family completed their move to the Council’s area on 15 November. Council B emailed Z’s file and EHC Plan to the Council on 14 November 2024.
24. Mrs Y heard nothing from the Council following the move. She contacted it on 21 November asking about the arrangements for Z’s educational provision.
25. The Council logged the file from Council B on its records on 22 November. it then confirmed to Mrs Y on 22 November it had received the file from Council B and taken over responsibility for Z’s EHC Plan.

December 2024: Mrs Y’s complaint and request for alternative provision

26. On 3 December Mrs Y contacted the Council again. She complained the Council had failed to provide Z with an education and their SEN provision since the transfer of their EHC Plan on 15 November.
27. The Council replied on 6 December. It said its specialist placement team would deal with Z’s case. It asked if she wanted it to arrange home tuition for Z as interim provision.
28. From 12 December the Council arranged two hours a day of tuition at home for Z, which was shared with a sibling.

Consultations about a school place for Z

29. Z’s case was allocated to a specialist placement officer on 17 December. The Council says:

• it sent out consultations to the specialist schools, including school D, with which Mrs Y had asked it to consult about a place for Z;
• it had not received any responses by 3 January. It sent consultations to other special schools, and on 6 January to two further specialist schools requested by Mrs Y;
• school D replied to the consultation on 7 January. It said it could offer Z a place from September 2025 subject to the provision of funding for the additional staff member required to meet Z’s needs; and
• it did not receive any other positive responses to its consultations.

30. The Council decided to name school D as Z’s placement for September 2025.
31. It issued Z’s final EHC Plan on 20 January. This named their placement as a specialist setting yet to be identified in the period to autumn term 2025 and specialist school D from the autumn term 2025. Z’s specified SEN provision would be delivered through their educational setting.

Council’s final complaint response

32. In its final response to Mrs Y’s complaint the Council said its service was experiencing high volumes of pupils requiring consideration for a specialist placement and there was a waiting list for allocation of cases to its placements team.
33. It apologised for this delay and said it had been working to put procedures in place to resolve these issues. It had now found a school placement for Z for the autumn term 2025 and was consulting about alternative provision.

January 2025: issues with Z’s alternative provision

34. On 2 January Mrs Y told the Council the home tuition wasn’t suitable educational provision for Z. The Council suggested two alternative provision placements for Mrs Y to consider. On 17 January the Council referred Z to one of these placements, for provision of two days a week.
35. Z started at this placement on 3 February and continued to attend for two days a week until the end of the summer term 2025.

My decision - was there fault by the Council causing injustice?

The transfer of the EHC Plan

36. Z’s EHC Plan was transferred by council B, as the “old” council to the Council, as the “new” council, on 15 November 2024. This was the day on which the family moved into the Council’s area. Council B had notified the Council about the move and sent Z’s file and EHC Plan on 14 November. The Council then became responsible for maintaining and securing the provision in Z’s EHC Plan from 15 November.
37. As it was clearly impractical for Z to continue to attend the educational placement named in their Plan, which was in a different part of the country, the Council had a duty to place Z at another appropriate educational placement until their EHC Plan was formally amended. It failed to so this until September 2025, nearly 10 months later.
38. The Council also failed to secure Z’s SEN provision from 15 November 2024, on the transfer of their EHC Plan, until Z started at their new specialist placement in September 2025.
39. These failures were fault. I have considered the impact of this fault below.

Alternative Provision

40. The Council knew, from 15 November 2024, Z was out of school and not receiving a suitable education. It had a duty to arrange alternative provision for Z until it was able to find another appropriate school for Z to attend.
41. The Council provided Z with 10 hours a week of shared tuition from 12 December 2024 until January 2025, which was then replaced by two days a week at an alternative provision placement until the end of the summer term in July 2025.
42. There is no evidence the Council properly considered whether this alternative provision was a suitable education for Z’s age, ability, aptitude and special educational needs, or that it decided it should not be full-time for reasons of Z’s physical or mental health. There is no explanation as to why it only offered Z two days at the alternative provision placement. This failure was fault.
43. Mrs Y says the alternative provision did not meet Z’s academic needs, was not suitable for their age and there was no reason they should not have been provided with a full-time education.
44. My view is the Council failed to provide Z with suitable full-time alternative provision from 15 November 2024 to the end of the school year in July 2025.
45. These failures were fault.

Impact of the failures to place Z at another school, secure their SEN provision and make suitable alternative provision

46. Our guidance on remedies for a loss of educational provision recommends a payment of between £900 and £2,400 per term to acknowledge the impact of that loss. The exact figure should be based on the impact on the child. This should take into account factors such as the child’s special educational needs; any educational provision - full or part-time, without some or all of the specified support - that was made during the period; and whether additional provision now can remedy some or all of the loss.
47. We also consider factors such as whether the period was a key stage for the child, the impact on their education, development and life-chances. And where there is a move in from another council area, whether the lack of a school place meant a missed opportunity to make new friends.
48. In Z’s case, I consider they were provided with less than half the education they should have received during the period from 15 November 2024 to the end of the school year in July 2025. They also missed out on the SEN provision in their EHC Plan. I have taken into account the impact of this long period without suitable education on Z’s well-being during this time, and their future progress, and the delay in starting at a new school on their opportunity to make local friends. My view is the payment should be towards the middle of the range.
49. I also consider the failures caused Mrs Y and her family avoidable upset, worry and uncertainty about the arrangements for Z’s education and the impact on them going forward. I have recommended the Council make a payment to Mrs Y to symbolise and acknowledge the avoidable distress its failures caused.

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Action

50. To remedy the injustice caused by the above faults and, within four weeks from the date of our final decision, the Council has agreed to:
1. apologise to Mrs Y, and separately to Z in a way that is suitable for their age and capacity, for its failure to: place Z temporarily at another appropriate educational placement and secure their SEN provision following the transfer of their EHC Plan; and properly consider its duty to, and provide Z with a suitable full-time education in the period before they were able to start at their new school. This apology should be in line with our guidance on Making an effective apology:
2. pay Mrs Y, on Z’s behalf, £3,500 (based on missed provision over 2.5 terms). This is a remedy for Z’s benefit to recognise the injustice the missed education has caused them: and
3. pay Mrs Y £200 to reflect the avoidable upset, worry and uncertainty caused by its failures. This is a symbolic amount based on our guidance on remedies
51. And within three months from the date of our final decision the Council has agreed to:
1. review its current procedures for the action required following the transfer in of an EHC Plan from another council to ensure it properly carries out its statutory duties in a timely way; and remind relevant officers, either through training or a briefing note, of these procedures;
2. review its alternative provision policy and procedures to ensure it:

• properly considers its section 19 duty as soon as it is aware a child is not attending school; and
• has a system in place for officers to make a contemporaneous record around their decisions about this duty.
3. remind relevant officers, either through training or a briefing note, of these procedures and the need to act promptly to identify and arrange suitable alternative provision when it accepts a section 19 duty; and
4. report to us on the work it said it had done to put procedures in place to resolve the delay in allocating cases to its placements team.

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

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Decision

53. I find fault causing injustice. The Council has agreed to take the above action to remedy this injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman