Summary: There was fault by the Council. There were delays organising annual reviews and delay sending the final Education, Health and Care plan after the 2025 annual review. There was delay paying the personal budget but the Council remedied this when considering the complaint during it’s complaints procedure, along with making a payment to remedy its failure to provide the Occupational Therapy in the Education, Health and Care Plan. An additional payment for further failure to provide therapy in the Education, Health and Care plan, along with an apology and a review of procedures remedies the injustice of loss of educational provision and uncertainty to Mrs X and Mr Y.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mrs X, complains the Council delayed paying a personal budget for educational provision for Mr Y, who is a young adult.
2. Mrs X said there were delays in the annual review process and the Council has delayed arranging the Occupational Therapy (OT) and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) provision in Section F of an Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan. Mrs Y says that Mr Y has not received the education they should have and it has been very stressful.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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)
4. 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)
5. 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

6. I considered evidence provided by Mrs X and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
7. Mrs 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

8. A child or young person with special educational needs may have an Education, Health and Care 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. 
9. 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. The annual review begins with consulting the child’s parents or the young person and the educational placement. A review meeting must then take place. The process is only complete when the council issues its decision to amend, maintain or cease to maintain the EHC Plan. This must happen within four weeks of the meeting. (Section 20(10) Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014 and SEN Code paragraph 9.176) 
10. If the council decides not to amend an EHC Plan or decides to cease to maintain it, it must inform the child’s parents or the young person of their right to appeal the decision to the tribunal.

Personal Budget

11. 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.
12. 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.
13. The council’s 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.
14. The information I have received shows that some of the direct payments were delayed. This was fault and caused considerable distress and inconvenience to Mrs X. While all the provisions have been paid, not knowing when she could pay suppliers was very stressful to Mrs X. As Mr Y received all the provision and all suppliers were paid there was no loss of education. So, I do not propose a financial remedy. But, Mrs X has made a previous complaint about delays in personal budget payments, which was upheld. The decision (22 006 607) said ‘the Council has also updated its Personal Budget processes to help improve how it deals with complex cases such as Mr Y’s in the future’. Given the repeated failure I have made a Service Improvement remedy for the Council to ensure the updates it has made have been properly put in place.

Annual Review

15. Mrs X’s previous complaint (22 006 607) was upheld and the Council has apologised for the delays in issuing the final amended EHC Plan after an annual review in December 2021.
16. The Council said ‘there is no record of an annual review on the system for 2023 or 2024. However, a final plan was issued on 2 February 2024, which appears to have been completed following a complaint. An annual review meeting took place on 26 February 2025, and the council received the paperwork on 09 April 2025’.
17. The Council created a draft amended EHC Plan on 21 October 2025 but this was not sent to the Mrs X. The Council has said it will issue the draft EHC plan will be issued by 17 November 2025.
18. The Council should have sent the final EHC Plan within 12 weeks of the annual review meeting, by 21 May 2025. The final plan has not yet been completed, there will be over 7 months delay.
19. The delay in carrying out previous annual reviews, as well as delay in sending the final EHC Plan after the 2025 annual review has caused injustice to Mrs X, which is compounded by the Council’s previous delays in her previous complaint to the Ombudsman.
20. Mrs X’s right to the appeal to the SEND tribunal has been delayed and so the Council should remedy this by an apology, making a symbolic payment of £500 towards her uncertainty and distress and issuing the final EHC Plan.

OT

21. The Council has already accepted there was delay in arranging the OT provision until 25 April 2025 and paid a remedy of £2100 while considering the complaint through its complaints procedure. The Council said it would update Mrs X within 10 days on how the OT provision would be put in place but no OT provision has been put in place.
22. In response to my enquiries the Council said ‘the delay in implementing the OT provision (since 5 April 2025) is due to case oversight. The service will complete a referral on 14 November 2025.
23. The Council has already agreed a payment of £2100 to remedy the loss of provision from April/May 2025 until April 2025, approximately a year. The Council has agreed to remedy the fault from the loss of provision until December 2025 at the same rate. This is for 7 months (not counting the summer holidays) and so I consider an additional payment of £1225, calculated pro-rata should be made for the loss of OT till December 2025.

CBT

24. The Council has said that it was at fault, that the delay in arranging the CBT in Section F of the EHC Plan occurred due to case oversight. The Council has said if the relevant details are provided, the request can be reviewed, and payments will be processed if approved through the Personal Budget’.
25. The EHC Plan is not specific on how many CBT sessions should be provided. Mrs X has said that she has arranged 3 sessions so far, at a cost of £150 a session. In order to remedy her complaint, the Council should pay her £450, the cost of the sessions already made and should confirm within two months whether it will fund further sessions.

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Action

26. Within one month of the date of the decision on this complaint the Council should:
• Apologise to Mrs X. 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.
• Pay Mr Y £2175.
27. Within two months of the date of the decision on this complaint the Council should:
• Provide details of the measures it has put in place to update its personal budget processes to prevent delays in making payments in the future.
• Write to Mrs X to tell her whether it will make payments for CBT sessions through the Personal Budget.
• Provide details of the measures it has put in place to prevent delays in the annual review process in the future.
• Issue the final EHC Plan after the 2025 annual review, if this has not been issued.
28. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Decision

29. I have completed my investigation and 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