Summary: Miss X complained about the way the Council dealt with her son, Y’s education. The Council was at fault for delaying in issuing Y’s education, health and care plan, failing to provide provision from the education, health and care plan, delaying in considering and implementing a personal budget and poorly responding to her complaint. This caused Miss X and Y distress, frustration and uncertainty. The Council has agreed to apologise, make payments, provide a timeframe for implementing provision and consider provision catch-up sessions for Y.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains about the way the Council dealt with her son, Y’s education, she says the Council:
1. delayed in issuing an amended EHC plan;
2. failed to provide support and provision set out in the EHC plan;
3. failed to provide her with a personal budget for Y’s provision; and
4. poorly responded to her complaint.
2. Miss X says because of this, she is still paying for and providing Y’s educational provision. She also says that Y has missed out on the education he needs. Miss X says she has now been paying for an advocate for two years and she is mentally, financially and emotionally distressed by this situation.

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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(i), 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 Miss X and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
7. 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

Legislation and guidance

EHC Plan 

8. 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.
9. The EHC Plan is set out in sections which include: 

• Section F: The special educational provision needed by the child or the young person. 
• Section I: The name and/or type of educational placement 
• Section J: Details of any personal budget required to fund the provision in the EHC Plan.

EHC plan following SEND Tribunal

10. Regulation 44 of the Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014 says that where the SEND tribunal requires a Council to issue a plan, the Council must issue a draft plan within five weeks of the order and send a copy of the finalised plan within 11 weeks of the order.

Reviewing EHC Plans

11. 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 discontinue 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) 

EOTAS

12. Education otherwise than at school (EOTAS) is the legal mechanism whereby a child or young person with an EHC plan can receive special educational provision despite being unable to attend an educational setting. 

Personal Budgets

13. 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.
14. 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.
15. 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.

What happened?

16. Y is a child with additional needs who has had an EHC plan since 2022. He would have been a year five student in September 2024.
17. Miss X attended a tribunal related to Y’s EHC plan in September 2024.
18. Following this, the Council issued a final amended EHC plan for Y at the end of October. The plan noted that no personal budget had been agreed. Section F noted that Y was entitled to:

• Speech and language therapy
• Occupational therapy
• An EOTAS provision, coordinated by an EOTAS coordinator
• Tutoring
• Enrichment and social activities
• Mentoring
• Mindfulness sessions
• A laptop.

19. An annual review was held in November 2024.
20. In early December, Miss X asked the Council to provide a personal budget for Y’s section F provision.
21. The Council emailed Miss X the same week. It said:

• it aimed to discuss Y’s personal budget at an internal panel meeting mid- December;
• it would start to consult with speech and language therapists and occupational therapists; and
• it has identified some possible tutors.

22. In early-February 2025, Miss X complained to the Council that it had failed to secure some provision set in out section F of Y’s EHC plan. Specifically, tutoring, resources, social enrichment and equipment since September 2024. She also said the Council had failed to set up a personal budget to pay for provision and transport costs.
23. The Council contacted Miss X mid-January to say her personal budget request had been discussed at an internal panel meeting. It said the personal budget had been agreed in principle, but the panel wanted further clarification on what the personal budget would be for.
24. In mid-February 2025, the Council issued the final EHC plan after the annual review.
25. The Council agreed to the personal budget at the end of February 2025, but there was a delay in these payments being made to Miss X.
26. The Council responded to Miss X’s stage one complaint on mid-March 2025. It apologised for the delay in issuing the EHC plan after the tribunal. The Council said it now agreed to add one hour tuition to Y’s EOTAS package and enrichment activities to his personal budget which should start as soon as possible.
27. The Council also acknowledged it had not provided Y with all of the provision set out in section F and partially upheld Miss X’s complaint for this reason. It noted that these issues had now been resolved.
28. The Council offered Miss X a £200 symbolic financial remedy in recognition of the time and trouble she spent pursuing this complaint. It also offered a remedy of £900 in recognition of the delay in Y’s full EOTAS package being made available between September 2024 and February 2025.
29. The Council scheduled an occupational therapy assessment for March 2024.
30. Miss X contacted the Council in mid-March 2025, unhappy with its stage one complaint response. She said despite the Council agreeing to the provision, Y was still not receiving all of this. She noted the Council had still not provided any tuition, an EOTAS coordinator, specialist chair and laptop or direct payments. She welcomed that the speech and language therapy had now started but said she was liable for the cost of these sessions, because the direct payments had not started. She also said the Council failed to respond to all her complaint points at stage one and that it wrongly gave the impression that Y’s provision was now in place.
31. The Council responded to Miss X’s stage two complaint at the end of April 2025. It noted it considered the stage one response to be adequate, including the apology and financial remedy. The Council apologised for the delay in issuing the final EHC plan after tribunal which it said was two months past the five-week deadline. The Council also noted there was no further outcome that could be achieved by the complaint procedure, and it upheld her complaint.
32. The Council updated Miss X in June, it confirmed that Y’s speech and language therapy was now in place. It also said Y was receiving half of the tuition he was entitled to.
33. In emails from the Council to Miss X in September 2025, the Council noted:

• the EOTAS coordinator was still not in place
• Y still didn’t have a laptop
• A full tutoring package had been agreed, but not yet started
• Mentoring was in place.

Response to my enquiries

34. The Council told me it is currently in the process of a restructure with additional staff members being added to the teams to help with capacity. It also noted that it had recently made changes with the decision-making process to allow for decisions to be made quicker.

Findings

The Council delayed in providing an amended EHC plan

35. I note that the Council noted in its complaint response that there was a delay in it issuing Y’s EHC plan following tribunal. Based on the information I have, there is no evidence there was a delay in this, because the EHC plan was issued within the 5-week timeframe.
36. But, the Council held an annual review at the end of November 2024, where it proposed several changes to the EHC plan. The Council sent the draft amended EHC plan the same day. It then sent the final EHC plan to Miss X on 20 February 2025. The Council should have issued this within eight weeks of the annual review. However, it took the Council 12 weeks to do so. This delay of four weeks was not in line with the statutory timeframes and is fault. This caused frustration and uncertainty to Miss X and Y. The Council has already apologised for this delay but this is insufficient to remedy the injustice caused to Miss X and Y and so I will recommend a further remedy.

The Council failed to provide support and provision set out in the EHC plan

37. Y was entitled to support by way of the EHC plan the Council issued in October 2024. Councils have a legal duty to secure all the provision in section F of an EHC plan. In Y’s case, this included several different provisions.
38. Miss X chased these provisions several times. The Council acknowledged it had not provided all the provision set out in section F in its complaint response. It apologised for this, but did not give Miss X reasons for the delay.
39. There is evidence that following Miss X’s complaint, the Council did start to implement some of the provision starting in March 2025, however there was still significant delay. I am concerned that this related specifically to Y only receiving half of his tuition by June 2025 and the laptop, chair and EOTAS coordinator still being outstanding in September 2025. This is fault because the Council had a legal duty to ensure the provision in line with section F was secured and provided.
40. This caused Y to miss out on several provisions as named in section F of his EHC plan. This had a detrimental impact on Y as he has lost out on the provision he was legally entitled to, which his EHC plan said he needed to access for his development, wellbeing and to be able to access suitable education.
41. I note the Council already made a payment of £900 in recognition of the delay in Y’s full EOTAS package being made available between September 2024 and February 2025. I will recommend a further payment for the period of February 2025 to July 2025.

The Council failed to provide Miss X with a personal budget for Y’s provision

42. Miss X asked the Council to provide her with a personal budget to cover some of Y’s provision and transport costs in December 2024. It took the Council until the end of February 2025 to agree to the personal budget. Despite agreeing to the personal budget, there was then a delay in this being paid properly to Miss X.
43. Although there are no statutory timeframes in place for agreeing and implementing personal budgets, we expect a council to do so within a reasonable timeframe. The Council did not do this, and its delay in considering and implementing the personal budget was fault. This caused Miss X distress and uncertainty and meant that she received invoices for services that the Council had not covered. The Council should apologise for this and provide a remedy for the personal injustice it caused.

The Council poorly responded to Miss X’s complaint

44. The Council partially upheld Miss X’s complaint that it had failed to provide provision set out in section F of Y’s EHC plan. Despite this, it said in the complaint response that it partially upheld this because Y had received some, but not all of his provision, but this had now been resolved.
45. The Council said it had been resolved, despite it still not implementing several parts of section F, including tuition, EOTAS coordinator, a laptop, and mentoring. The Council’s inaccurate wording was fault, which caused Miss X uncertainty and frustration. The Council should apologise for this.

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Action

46. Within four weeks of my final decision, the Council will:

• apologise to Miss X for the frustration, uncertainty and distress caused by its faults. We publish guidance on remedies which sets out our expectations for how organisations should apologise effectively to remedy injustice. The Council should consider this guidance in making its apology;
• make a payment of £100 to Miss X to reflect the frustration and uncertainty caused to her by the four-week delay in issuing Y’s EHC plan following the annual review;
• make a payment of £1800 to reflect the lack of section F provision for Y from February 2025 to July 2025. We suggest that Miss X uses this for Y’s benefit;
• meet with Miss X to discuss if Y would benefit from catch up sessions for the provision he missed between September 2024 and July 2025 and agree a written plan for this to be implemented;
• confirm to Miss X when it will provide a laptop and EOTAS coordinator; and
• make a payment of £150 to Miss X to reflect the distress and uncertainty caused by the Council’s delay in considering and implementing the personal budget.

47. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman