Summary: We have found fault with the Council for failing to consider its Section 19 duty. This caused Miss X’s son, Y to miss out on education and support. The Council has agreed to apologise and make a payment to Miss X in recognition of the injustice caused. In addition, the Council agreed to make a service improvement to share information between teams.

The complaint

1. Miss X complained that her son, Y has been without suitable education since February 2024 when he was placed on a very reduced timetable and the Council failed to make suitable alternative arrangements.

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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 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)
4. 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)
5. 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.
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)

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What I have and have not investigated

7. The Council issued Y’s EHC Plan in July 2024. Miss X appealed against the naming of the school (Section I).
8. The ‘substance’ of Miss X’s complaint and her appeal are the same: the suitability of the education proposed by the Council in Y’s EHC Plan, so the complaint is out of our jurisdiction from July 2024.
9. Miss X complained the Council failed to secure alternative provision from February 2024 when Y was placed on a reduced timetable. Miss brought her complaint to the Ombudsman in April 2025. Therefore, as explained in paragraph 3, the period February-April 2024 is a late complaint and S26(b) applies.
10. Miss X explained that she was in constant contact with the Council about Y’s education and it told her that only the Tribunal could make decisions about this. She was not aware that she could bring the complaint about missed education/alternative provision to the Ombudsman as she thought it was linked.
11. I have decided to exercise my discretion and investigate back to February 2024.
12. I have started my investigation in February 2024 when the school placed Y on a reduced timetable and have ended my investigation in July 2024 when Miss X appealed to the Tribunal.

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How I considered this complaint

13. I considered evidence provided by Miss X and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
14. Miss X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments received before making a final decision.

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What I found

Law and guidance

EHC Plan

15. 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. 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.

Personal Budgets

16. A Personal Budget is the amount of money the council has identified it needs to pay to secure the provision in a child or young person’s EHC Plan. One way that councils can deliver a Personal Budget is through direct payments. These are cash payments made to the child’s parent or the young person so they can commission the provision in the EHC Plan themselves.
17. A child’s parent or the young person has the right to request a Personal Budget when the council has completed an EHC needs assessment and confirmed it will prepare an EHC Plan. They may also request a Personal Budget during a statutory review of an existing EHC Plan.
18. The final allocation of a Personal Budget must be sufficient to secure the agreed provision specified in the EHC Plan and must be set out as part of that provision.
19. If the council refuses a request for a direct payment, it must set out the reasons in writing and inform the child’s parent or the young person of their right to request a formal review of the decision.
20. The council’s (and health commissioning body’s where relevant) duty to secure or arrange provision specified in EHC Plans is only discharged through a direct payment when the provision has been acquired for, or on behalf of, the child’s parent or the young person.

Section 19 duty

21. 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. [The provision generally should be full-time unless it is not in the child’s interests.] (Education Act 1996, section 19). We refer to this as section 19 or alternative education provision.
22. This applies to all children of compulsory school age living in the local council area, whether or not they are on the roll of a school. (Statutory guidance ‘Alternative Provision’ January 2013)

Part-time timetables

23. The DfE guidance (Working together to improve school attendance) states all pupils of compulsory school age are entitled to a full-time education. In very exceptional circumstances there may be a need for a temporary part-time timetable to meet a pupil’s individual needs. For example where a medical condition prevents a pupil from attending full-time education and a part-time timetable is considered as part of a re-integration package. A part-time timetable must not be treated as a long-term solution.
24. Schools should notify the local authority of any cases where a child is accessing reduced/part-time education arrangements. Our focus report, “Out of school…out of mind?”, says councils should keep all cases of part-time education under review with a view to increasing it if a child's capacity to learn increases.

What happened

25. Miss X’s son, Y has SEND and an EHC Plan. Y attended a mainstream primary school.
26. In February 2024, Y’s school decided to reduce Y’s timetable. It said that accessing the classroom caused Y distress and emotional dysregulation. The school notified the Council that it had placed Y on a part-time timetable of 45 minutes per day that would be reviewed regularly. It said this had been discussed with Miss X who agreed that Y could not cope with attending full time.
27. Y was entitled to free school meals but as he was not in school over lunchtime, he did not receive these. The Council said the school offered packed lunches, but Miss X declined these as Y was entitled to a free school meal. In its stage 2 response, the Council acknowledged that the school should have offered free school meals vouchers. It instructed the school to backdate the funds owed to Miss X. Miss X accepted the payment as settlement for the missed free school meal provision.
28. The Council issued Y’s EHC Plan in July 2024. Miss X appealed against the named school in Section I.

My findings

29. Although the school notified the Council that Y was only attending school for 45 minutes per day from February 2024, this information was not shared with all relevant departments. Therefore, the Council did not ask for any details regarding the drastically reduced timetable or considered its Section 19 duty. This was fault.
30. The lack of alternative provision for the remainder of the week meant that Miss X arranged and funded education and support for Y.
31. While Y received support at home from Miss X, this did not represent a suitable full-time education. Therefore, I have found that the Council’s failure to consider its Section 19 duty resulted in Y missing out on education and support between February and July 2024. This was effectively 2 school terms.
32. In line with our guidance on remedies, the Council has agreed to pay Miss X £1800 (£900 per term) in recognition of the impact of the missed provision.

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Agreed action

33. Within 4 weeks of my decision, the Council has agreed to:
1. Apologise to Miss X for not considering its Section 19 duty which resulted in Y missing education.
2. Pay Miss X £1800 in recognition of the impact of the missed provision.
34. Within 12 weeks of my decision, the Council has agreed to:
1. Improve its information sharing within the education department by requiring officers to update information on the shared system. This should ensure that relevant teams are notified of important changes such as a child being placed on a reduced timetable.
35. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Decision

36. I find fault causing injustice. The Council has agreed to remedy the injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman