Summary: Mrs C complained the Council failed to meet the statutory timeframe for completing an Education, Health and Care needs assessment for her child. We find the Council at fault for a delay in issuing the final Education, Health and Care Plan. This caused Mrs C uncertainty, distress and frustration and delayed her right to appeal. The Council has agreed to make a symbolic payment to Mrs C to remedy the injustice caused.

The complaint

1. Mrs C complained the Council failed to meet the statutory timeframe for completing an Education, Health and Care needs assessment for her child, B. Mrs C also complained the Council’s communication during the assessment process was poor. Mrs C told us this caused her stress and impacted B’s education. Mrs C would like the Council to be held accountable, and she would like financial compensation.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide:

• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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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What I have and have not investigated

6. The Council has investigated Mrs C’s complaint about poor communication and provided a suitable remedy. We cannot add to the investigation already completed by the Council and further investigation would not lead to a different outcome. For this reason, I have not investigated the part of Mrs C’s complaint which relates to poor communication during the assessment process.
7. The Council has also investigated the delay in completing the Education, Health and Care needs assessment and provided a financial remedy for a three month delay in issuing the final Education, Health and Care Plan. Mrs C disagrees with the Council’s calculation for the delay and believes the delay was significantly longer. I have investigated the delay in completing the Education, Health and Care needs assessment and issuing the final Education, Health and Care Plan.

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How I considered this complaint

8. I considered evidence provided by Mrs C and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
9. Mrs C 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

Legal and administrative background

10. 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.
11. Statutory guidance ‘Special educational needs and disability code of practice: 0 to 25 years’ (‘the Code’) sets out the process for carrying out 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. 
• If the council decides not to conduct an EHC needs assessment it must give the child’s parent or young person information about their right to appeal to the Tribunal.
• 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 (unless certain specific circumstances apply)  

What happened

12. Mrs C submitted a parental EHC needs assessment request for B in June 2024. Mrs C sent a number of reports from professionals to support her request.
13. In accordance with the statutory timeframes, the Council should have issued its decision to assess no later than 1 August 2024. The final Plan should have been issued no later than 7 November 2024.
14. In the middle of August the Council wrote to Mrs C to explain it had decided not to complete an assessment of B’s needs. The letter explained the Council did not believe the legal threshold for completing an assessment had been met.
15. Mrs C requested a mediation meeting to discuss the Council’s refusal to complete an assessment. Due to staff shortages the Council cancelled the mediation meeting and instead sent the decision to its multi-agency panel to be reconsidered.
16. In response to our enquiries the Council told us the multi-agency panel did not receive any additional evidence to consider.
17. Based on Mrs C’s initial request for an EHC needs assessment the multi-disciplinary panel agreed the legal threshold for an assessment was met. The Council wrote to Mrs C at the beginning of November 2024 to explain it had agreed to carry out an assessment.
18. As the Council overturned its decision based on the initial assessment request and supporting evidence, the statutory timeframe runs from the date the initial assessment request was submitted. This means the Council should have issued the final EHC Plan no later than 7 November 2024.
19. The Council issued B’s EHC Plan at the end of June 2025.

My findings

20. There was a delay of approximately 8 months in the Council issuing the final EHC Plan. This is fault which caused Mrs C uncertainty, distress and frustration.
21. The Council has apologised and provided a financial remedy of £300. This has been taken into consideration in our recommendations.
22. In response to our enquiries the Council explained it has changed its process for the way in which it considers EHC needs assessment requests. Therefore, I have not made any further service improvement recommendations.

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Action

23. Within one month of the final decision the Council will make a symbolic payment of £500 to Mrs C. This remedies the remaining 5 months of delay which were not included in the Council’s financial remedy.
24. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Decision

25. 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