Summary: The Council was at fault for delay issuing Miss X’s child’s Education, Health and Care plan. The Council apologised and improved its service, but will also make a payment to remedy the distress and frustration the delay caused. The Council was not at fault for the way it handled Miss X’s complaint.

The complaint

1. Miss X complained the Council delayed issuing her child’s Education, Health and Care plan and responding to her complaint. Miss X said this impacted her child’s education. She said it also caused distress and frustration.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’ (see paragraph three). 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. 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)
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. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
6. 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 provider has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
7. 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

8. As I have said above, we cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons.
9. In this case, the Council should have issued Miss X’s child’s Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan in July 2023. It issued the plan in August 2024. Miss X immediately complained to the Council. Miss X complained to the Ombudsman in May 2025.
10. Miss X knew the Council delayed issuing the EHC plan after July 2023, when it should have issued the plan. However, Miss X waited until the Council had issued the plan (August 2024) before she complained. This is understandable, because she complained once she knew how long the delay had been. Miss X then brought her complaint to the Ombudsman within 12 months of her complaint to the Council.
11. Taking this into account, I find good reasons to exercise our discretion and look back to July 2023, when the Council should have issued the EHC plan.
12. I have investigated up to June 2025, when the Council issued its stage two complaint response.

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How I considered this complaint

13. I considered the information and documents provided by Miss X and the Council. I spoke to Miss X about her complaint. I considered the relevant legislation, statutory guidance, and policies, set out below. I also considered the Ombudsman’s published guidance on remedies.
14. Miss X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on an earlier draft of this statement. I considered all comments and further information received before I reached a final decision.

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What I found

What should have happened

Education, Health and Care plans

15. Statutory guidance ‘Special educational needs and disability code of practice: 0 to 25 years’ (‘the Code’) sets out the process for carrying out Education, Health and Care (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 following: 

• Where the council receives a request for an EHC needs assessment it must decide whether to agree to the assessment and send its decision to the parent of the child or the young person within six weeks. 
• 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 the council goes on to issue an EHC plan, 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. 

The Council’s complaints procedure

16. The Council’s complaints procedure says it will respond to a complaint at the first stage of its complaint process (stage one) within 10 working days.
17. The procedure says the Council will respond to a complaint at the second and final stage of its complaint process (stage two) within 20 working days.

What happened

18. In February 2023, Miss X asked the Council for an Education, Health and Care (EHC) needs assessment for her child, B. The Council agreed to do the assessment and to issue an EHC plan for B.
19. The Council issued B’s EHC plan in August 2024. Miss X complained a few days later.
20. The Council sent its stage one complaint response in early September. The Council accepted it had issued B’s EHC plan late. It apologised for the distress and frustration this caused. It said it had employed and trained more staff, and streamlined its services. The Council said if Miss X wanted it to consider her complaint at stage two, she could ask for this within a month.
21. In May 2025, Miss X complained to the Ombudsman. The Council told the Ombudsman Miss X had not asked for stage two. In June, the Ombudsman asked the Council to complete a stage two complaint response.
22. The Council sent Miss X its stage two response in June. It said the delay issuing B’s EHC plan was because of delays in the educational psychology service. The Council said it had taken action to address this, and to tackle the backlog of EHC needs assessments.

Analysis

The Education, Health and Care plan

23. Miss X complained the Council delayed issuing her child’s Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan.
24. Miss X asked the Council for an EHC needs assessment for her child, B, in February 2023. The Council should have issued the EHC plan within 20 weeks, which would have been July 2023. The Council issued the plan in August 2024, 13 months late.
25. The Council’s stage two complaint response said that the delay issuing B’s EHC plan was because of delays in the educational psychology service. This is service failure (explained in paragraph three).
26. I find this service failure caused Miss X distress and frustration. I am satisfied the Council apologised for the injustice and took steps to address the cause of the delay. However, I consider a financial remedy is appropriate and proportionate here. I address this below.

Complaint handling

27. Miss X complained the Council delayed responding to her complaint
28. The Council issued its stage one complaint response within 10 working days. This was in line with its complaints procedure. Therefore, I find no fault.
29. Miss X complained to the Ombudsman in May 2025. The Council told us Miss X had not asked for stage two. We asked the Council to complete a stage two response, which it did.
30. The Council sent its stage two response to Miss X four working days longer than the 20 working days set out in its procedure. I do not consider this is significant enough to constitute fault.
31. I have seen no evidence which persuades me Miss X asked the Council to respond to her complaint at stage two. I find the first time the Council received a request for stage two was in May 2025, when we asked it to do a stage two response.
32. I do not agree with Miss X that the Council delayed responding to her complaint. Therefore, I do not find the Council at fault.

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Action

33. Within four weeks of this decision, the Council will make a payment of £1300 to Miss X. This is made up as follows:
• We usually recommend £100 per month of delay issuing Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans, even if the reason for the delay is service failure.
• 13 months of delay multiplied by £100 (per month) is £1300.
34. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above action.

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Decision

35. I find fault causing injustice. The Council will take action to remedy injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman