Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about delays in the Education, Health and Care Plan process. The Council has agreed to apologise to Mrs X and pay her £100 per month for the delay. This is an appropriate remedy and further investigation is unlikely to achieve anything more.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains the Council failed to complete the Education, Health and Care (EHC) needs assessment for her son, Y, within the legal timescale. Mrs X requested the assessment on 11 July 2024. To date, the Council has not completed the process or decided whether to issue an EHC plan for Y.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word fault to refer to these. Service failure can happen when an organisation fails to provide a service as it should have done because of circumstances outside its control. We do not need to show any blame, intent, flawed policy or process, or bad faith by an organisation to say service failure (fault) has occurred. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1), as amended)
3. 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(i), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
6. Using 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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My assessment

7. Mrs X requested an EHC needs assessment for her son, Y, on 11 July 2024. Once the Council agreed to carry out this assessment it had to:
• tell Mrs X within 16 weeks of her request whether it intended to issue an EHC Plan for Y and
• if the Council decided to issue an EHC Plan, issue it within 20 weeks of Mrs X’s request.
8. This means the Council should have told Mrs X by 31 October 2024 whether it intended to issue an EHC Plan for Y. If so, the Council should then have issued the EHC Plan by 28 November 2024.
9. To date the Council has made no decision on whether to issue an EHC Plan. It says that it intends to decide by 23 July 2025.
10. The Council has accepted it has delayed in completing Y’s EHC assessment and deciding whether to issue an EHC Plan. It says a lack of educational psychologists has contributed to the delay. The Council’s failure to issue a decision is a service failure.
11. We are satisfied the Council is taking action to deal with the lack of educational psychologists. It has sent us a service improvement action plan.
12. The Council has agreed to the following actions to remedy Mrs X’s complaint:
• Apologise to Mrs X for the delay in the EHC Plan process.
• Pay Mrs X £100 per month for each month of the delay. If the Council decides to issue an EHC Plan this delay should be calculated from 28 November 2024 until the date the final plan is issued. If it decides not to issue a plan, the amount should be calculated from 31 October 2024 until the date of the decision. The Council will make the payment within 4 weeks of sending Mrs X the final EHC Plan or notifying her of the decision not to issue a plan.
13. I consider the remedy agreed by the Council is suitable and that it is taking action to address the issue that caused this complaint. It is unlikely that investigation will achieve anything more for Mrs X.

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Final decision

14. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because the Council has agreed a suitable remedy for the injustice caused by its delay.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman