Summary: The Council was at fault for the delay following Y’s 2024 annual Education, Health and Care Plan review, for poor communication and complaint handling. It was also at fault for failing to provide Mrs X’s child, Y, with any educational provision between September 2024 and March 2025. The Council has agreed to apologise and make a payment to acknowledge the missed education, delayed appeal rights, distress and frustration caused.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complained the Council failed to reach a decision after her child Y’s annual reviews in June 2023 and May 2024. She says its communication with her was poor and it failed to provide any educational provision for Y between September 2024 and March 2025. This has caused them significant frustration, Y has missed out on education and it delayed their opportunity to appeal. Mrs X wants the Council to provide consistent tutors for Y so they can study for GCSEs and achieve their full academic potential.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone can appeal to a tribunal about the same matter. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to appeal. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)
3. The First-tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability) considers appeals against council decisions regarding special educational needs. We refer to it as the SEND Tribunal in this decision statement.
4. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended) Mrs X complained about delays following the annual review in 2023. It was open to Mrs X to complain to us about what happened in 2023 at that time, and I see no good reason to consider this now. I have considered what happened since April 2024, one year prior to Mrs X complaining to us.
5. 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)
6. 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

7. I considered evidence provided by Mrs X and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance and considered our guidance on remedies published on our website.
8. I gave Mrs X and the Council an opportunity to comment on a draft of this decision. I considered any comments before reaching a final decision.

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What I found

EHC Plans

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 which include section F: the special educational provision needed by the child or young person and section I: the name or type of educational establishment.

Annual reviews

10. 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.
11. Where the council proposes to amend an EHC Plan, the law says it must send the child’s parent or the young person a copy of the existing (non-amended) Plan and an accompanying notice providing details of the proposed amendments, including copies of any evidence to support the proposed changes. (Section 22(2) Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014 and SEN Code paragraph 9.194). Case law sets out this should happen within four weeks of the date of the review meeting. Case law also found councils must issue the final amended EHC Plan within a further eight weeks.
12. For young people moving from secondary school to a post-16 institution or apprenticeship, the council must review and amend the EHC Plan – including specifying the post-16 provision and naming the institution – by 31 March in the calendar year of the transfer.  

The Council’s complaints’ procedure

13. The Council’s complaints’ procedure refers to two stages and says a full complaint response will be sent within 20 working days. However complex complaints may take longer to investigate.

Background

14. Y has chronic anxiety and autism. Y was on roll at School 1 (an independent special school) since September 2022 but was not attending.

What happened

15. The following is a summary of the key events relevant to this complaint.
16. The Council held Y’s annual review on 1 May 2024. This noted Y was receiving support from School 1’s outreach provision. Y received five hours of support over three days which was delivered at home. It noted Y wanted to remain at School 1 for post 16 education and that Y would not be able to physically access education outside of their home.
17. Mrs X complained to the Council in June 2024 as she had heard nothing since the annual review. She asked the Council to reach a decision and to send the draft proposed amendments to Y’s EHC Plan as soon as possible. The Council responded in August 2024. It apologised for the delay in replying. It said it had suggested a different education provider (Provider 2) but it did not process the annual review paperwork. It said the caseworker was discussing alternative provision and would issue an amendment notice. It would then consult School 1, Provider 2 and a tuition provider. It apologised for the delay and offered Mrs X £300.
18. Mrs X wrote to the Council in September 2024 and asked to escalate her complaint to the second stage of the complaints’ procedure. She said Y was still without a school place and the case worker had not been in touch. She said Y wanted to do GCSEs which were not available at Provider 2.
19. In December 2024 the Council considered the request to fund School 1 for a further year. It declined this and decided Y’s needs were best met through a special post 16 provision. It issued Y’s final amended EHC Plan which named Provider 2. Y did not attend Provider 2. In January 2025 the Council agreed to fund 15 hours of tuition a week for Y. Mrs X says the tuition started in late March 2025.
20. The Council responded at the second stage of its complaints procedure in February 2025. It apologised for the delay in replying. It said it acknowledged it had not addressed its errors or correctly addressed the injustice to Mrs X and Y in its stage one response. It accepted:
• It had not processed Y’s 2023 annual review although the recommendation was to maintain the Plan and so this did not impact Y’s provision.
• It had not issued an amended final EHC Plan by 31 March 2024 as part of Y’s phase transfer process which frustrated Mrs X’s right of appeal and meant Y did not have a named placement for September 2024.
• Y missed out on provision between September and December 2024.
• It had failed to process Y’s 2024 annual review within the correct timeframe.
21. It offered Mrs X £2300 which comprised:
• £300 in recognition of the time and trouble in having to escalate her complaint.
• £1200 to acknowledge Y’s missed education provision between September and December 2024.
• £500 for the missed opportunities due to not processing Y’s 2023 annual review and by the delay in processing the 2024 annual review.
• £300 for the distress and frustration caused by its poor communication.
22. It said it had assigned Y a new caseworker and it had issued Y with an amendment notice in late November 2024. It said this gave Mrs X the opportunity to request any changes or propose a placement. It said its placement panel had declined the request for Y to continue at School 1. It said the case worker would keep Mrs X fully updated on progress.
23. Mrs X remained unhappy and complained to us.
24. In response to our enquiries the Council said it had yet to amend Y’s EHC Plan to reflect that Y was not attending Provider 2 but was receiving tuition. It said it would issue an amendment notice after the annual review which it arranged for October 2025.
25. We have previously made service improvement recommendations to this Council on other similar cases over the last couple of years. The Council has also produced an accelerated progress plan which sets out the actions it is taking to improve SEN service delivery. It provided an update on progress with this to the Department of Education earlier this year.

Findings

26. Y was due to move from secondary school to post-16 provision in September 2024. The Council failed to review Y’s EHC Plan before 31 March 2024. This was fault. When Y’s annual review was held in May 2024 it then failed to process this in a timely manner. It did not issue an amendment notice until late November 2024, 25 weeks later than it should have. The Council issued the final amended EHC Plan 20 days later, over 32 weeks after the annual review meeting. These delays were fault. These faults meant Y was without education between September and December 2024 and frustrated Mrs X’s appeal rights.
27. When the Council issued the final amended EHC Plan in December 2024 this named Provider 2. Y has never attended. Although this gave Mrs X a right of appeal it was reasonable for her not to use this right given the Council agreed to arrange tutors for Y in January 2025. However, this tuition did not start until late March 25. The Council took too long to arrange the tuition. This was fault. Y therefore missed out on a further term of education.
28. There was a significant delay in the Council responding to Mrs X’s complaint. This was fault which added to her frustration. The Council has offered an appropriate remedy in line with our guidance for the injustice caused by the faults it identified, in the complaint response, including missed education provision between September and December 2024. However, Y also missed an additional term of education. I have therefore recommended an additional payment to acknowledge this.
29. Given the actions the Council is already taking to improve its SEND services I have not made any service improvement recommendations on this case. We will continue to monitor its performance through our casework.

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Agreed Action

30. Within one month of the final decision the Council has agreed to:
1. apologise to Mrs X and Y for the distress, frustration and missed education caused by the Council’s faults. We publish guidance on remedies which sets out our expectations for how organisations should apologise effectively to remedy injustice. The organisation should consider this guidance in making the apology I have recommended.
2. pay Mrs X the £2300 it previously offered plus an additional £1200 to acknowledge the further term's missed provision.
3. provide us with a copy of the amendment notice issued following Y’s October 2025 annual review.
31. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Decision

32. I find fault causing injustice which the Council has agreed to remedy.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman