Summary: Miss X complained the Council failed to complete an Education, Health and Care needs assessment for Y in line with statutory time limits and failed to make alternative provision available for him while he was out of school. The Council was at fault for delays in completing the needs assessment and in securing alternative provision for Y, causing uncertainty and a loss of education. The Council has agreed to apologise and make a payment to reflect the injustice.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains the Council failed to complete and Education, Health and Care (EHC) needs assessment in line with statutory time limits and failed to ensure her son, Y received suitable alternative provision after it was notified he was no longer attending school in September 2024.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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 the future we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
3. We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
4. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint unless we are satisfied the organisation knows about the complaint and has had an opportunity to investigate and reply. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to notify the organisation of the complaint and give it an opportunity to investigate and reply. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(5), section 34(B)6)
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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What I have and have not investigated

7. I have investigated Miss X’s complaint about the delays in completing the EHC needs assessment process from the point the assessment was requested in July 2024, up until the Council issued a final EHC Plan for Y in September 2025.
8. We cannot usually investigate complaints unless we are satisfied the Council has had a chance to look into them first. This includes events that are linked to or ongoing from the complaint that has been brought to us.
9. I have investigated Miss X’s complaint about how the Council considered its duty to provide alternative educational provision from the point it was informed Y was no longer attending school in October 2024, up until the point it provided Miss X with its final complaint response in March 2025.

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How I considered this complaint

10. I considered evidence provided by Miss X and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
11. Miss 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

EHC needs assessment

12. A child or young person with special educational needs (SEN) may have an 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. 
13. On receiving a request for an EHC needs assessment, a council must decide whether an assessment is necessary. As part of an EHC needs assessment, a council must seek advice from the parent, head teacher of the school, and from any other professionals, including an Educational Psychologist (EP).
14. Statutory guidance ‘Special educational needs and disability Code of Practice: 0 to 25 years’ (the Code) sets out the process for carrying out EHC assessments and producing EHC Plans. The guidance is based on the Children and Families Act 2014 and the SEN Regulations 2014. It says:
• The process of assessing needs and developing EHC Plans “must be carried out in a timely manner”. Steps must be completed as soon as practicable;
• If a Council decides to assess a child’s EHC needs, they must gather information from relevant professionals, who must respond within six weeks;
• If the Council decides not to issue an EHC Plan, it must explain this within 16 weeks from the date of the request.
• If it decides to issue an EHC Plan, the Council must then send a draft plan to the child’s parents, giving them 15 days to comment; and
• The whole process from the point when an assessment is requested until the final EHC Plan is issued must take no more than 20 weeks.

Section 19 duty

15. Councils must “make arrangements for the provision of suitable education at school or otherwise than at school for those children of compulsory school age who, by reason of illness, exclusion from school or otherwise, may not for any period receive suitable education unless such arrangements are made for them.” (Education Act 1996, section 19(1))
16. The "otherwise" category provides for a wide range of scenarios where the Council may have a legal duty under section 19. It would include, for example, when a child was refusing to attend school due to anxiety or phobia. (Statutory guidance ‘Alternative Provision’ January 2013)
17. Suitable education means efficient education suitable to a child’s age, ability and aptitude and to any special educational needs they may have. (Education Act 1996, section 19(6))
18. The education provided by the council 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)
19. Where councils arrange for schools or other bodies to carry out their functions on their behalf, the council remains responsible and so should retain oversight and control to ensure duties are properly fulfilled.

What happened

20. I have summarised below some key events leading to Miss X’s complaint. While I have considered everything submitted, this is not intended to be a detailed account of what took place.

EHC needs assessment

21. Y was on roll at School A but had been attending on a reduced timetable. On 15 July 2024, the Council received a request to assess Y’s EHC needs.
22. The Council considered this request and wrote to Miss X to confirm it would complete an EHC needs assessment for Y. The Council explained it would allocate an EP and a SEND coordinator to Y’s case.
23. On 4 November the Council missed the 16-week deadline to let Miss X know whether it had decided to issue an EHC Plan for Y.
24. On 2 December the Council missed the 20-week deadline to complete the assessment and issue an EHC Plan, if that is what it intended to do.
25. The Council notified Miss X in May 2025 that an EP had been allocated to Y.
26. In August 2025 the Council wrote to Miss X to let her know it had decided to issue and EHC Plan for Y and provided a draft EHC Plan. Miss X responded the following day to provide her preference of school placement and request amendments. The Council issued a further draft EHC Plan and began to consult with schools.
27. On 4 September the Council issued a final EHC Plan, which did not name a school placement but said Y would attend a mainstream school and set out the special educational provision that would be available to him.

Section 19 duty

28. On 25 September 2024, Y stopped attending School A.
29. School A contacted the Council on 22 October to explain Y was no longer attending due to medical reasons. The Council asked School A to complete medical referral paperwork so it could consider its Section 19 duty to Y.
30. On 11 November School A returned the medical referral paperwork. This explained Y had been struggling since 2023 and was no longer able to attend even on a part-time timetable.
31. The Council then passed Y’s case to its education access specialist to make a decision on its Section 19 duty.
32. Y’s case was due to be discussed at the Council’s complex advice panel on 27 November, but this did not take place due to staff absence.
33. The Council wrote to School A on 7 January 2025 asking it to arrange a school-based meeting to discuss Y’s case.
34. The school-based meeting took place on 13 February. The Council discussed Y’s ability with School A and Miss X and agreed an individual package of support would be arranged through a mentoring package to slowly introduce an adult to Y. Provision was agreed to take place at home with a view to supporting him access the local community.
35. From 24 February, Y began to receive six hours per week of mentoring tuition provision.

What the Council has said

36. In response to our enquiries the Council acknowledged a delay of nine months in completing the EHC needs assessment process and offered to pay Miss X £975 in recognition of this. The Council also agreed it was aware Y stopped attending School A from October 2024 and had the information needed to make an informed decision on its Section 19 duty from November 2024 but did not put alternative provision in place until February 2025. In recognition of this delay, the Council offered to apologise to Miss X and pay a further £1,000 for the missed educational provision, as well as £200 for the distress this would have caused.
37. The Council explained it is currently going through a programme of improvement to help meet statutory timescales with EHC needs assessments. This includes a contract with an external provider to increase availability of EP advice as well as a recruitment plan for its own EPs.

Analysis

EHC needs assessment

38. The Council initially received a request to assess Y’s EHC needs on 15 July 2024. The Council promptly informed Miss X it would complete an EHC needs assessment and set out the next steps but missed the deadline by which to decide whether it would issue and EHC Plan for Y. This is fault and caused uncertainty for Mrs X and Y, which is injustice.
39. If the Council had completed the EHC needs assessment process in line with statutory time limits, Y’s EHC Plan would have been finalised by 2 December 2024. However, the Council did not finalise Y’s EHC Plan until 4 September 2025, nine months after the deadline to do so. This is a considerable delay which caused significant uncertainty and frustration for Miss X, as well as frustrating her rights to appeal to the tribunal. The delays also created uncertainty around whether Y was missing out on special educational provision he would have been entitled to between December 2024 and September 2025. This is injustice.
40. The Council has offered to pay Miss X £975 in recognition of the injustice caused by the delay and I find this to be a suitable remedy in the circumstances. The Council has also set out what action it is taking to prevent a recurrence of the fault going forward, and I find this to be reasonable.

Section 19 duty

41. School A let the Council know Y was no longer attending in October 2024. At this point, the Council needed to consider its duty to make arrangements for the provision of suitable education or consider enforcing attendance at School A.
42. The Council promptly engaged with School A and Miss X to ask for the information it needed to consider its Section 19 duty, but it did not put any alternative provision in place until February 2025. This is a considerable delay and meant Y missed out on provision he would have been entitled to across around four months, which is injustice. The Council has now offered to pay Miss X £1,000 in recognition of the missed educational provision and a further £200 in recognition of the distress the delay would have caused. I find this to be a suitable remedy.
43. It is not my role to say what alternative provision Y should have received or what level of education was suitable for him. However, the evidence the Council has provided suggests it followed the right process when making decisions on what to put in place from February 2025, so I cannot find it at fault here.

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Action

44. To address the injustice identified above, the Council should carry out the following actions within one month:
• Provide Miss X with a written apology for the injustice caused by the failure to complete Y’s EHC needs assessment within the statutory time limits and the delays in considering its Section 19 duty to provide alternative education while he was out of school. 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 in my findings; and
• Pay Miss X the £2,175 it has offered in recognition of the injustice caused by the faults identified above.
45. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Decision

46. 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