Summary: The Council was at fault for delaying completing an Education, Health and Care needs assessment. The Council was not at fault for deciding not to put in place alternative education for a child. This meant the child had to wait longer to receive an Education, Health and Care Plan. The Council agreed to apologise and make payments for the frustration and anxiety caused.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains about the time taken by the Council to complete an Education, Health and Care (EHC) needs assessment for her child and issue a final EHC Plan. Mrs X also complains the Council stopped alternative provision it put in place for her child.
2. Mrs X says her child had to wait longer to receive a final EHC Plan and has missed out on education.

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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)

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What I have and have not investigated

5. I have investigated matters up until the Council issued a final EHC Plan for the child. If Mrs X has concerns about matters after the final EHC Plan she would need to raise a new complaint in the first instance.

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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.
8. 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 found

Law and guidance

9. A child or young person with special educational needs may have an 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. 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.
10. 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. 
• 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 carry out an assessment, it must decide whether to issue an EHC Plan or refuse to issue a Plan within 16 weeks.
• 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).

11. As part of the assessment, councils must gather advice from relevant professionals (SEND Regulation 6(1)). This includes:
• the child’s educational placement;
• medical advice and information from health care professionals involved with the child;
• psychological advice and information from an Educational Psychologist (EP);
12. Section 19 of the Education Act 1996 says that councils must arrange suitable alternative educational provision when it finds that a child is unable to attend school because of a permanent exclusion, an illness, or for any other reason which make the school inaccessible to the child. The alternative educational provision must be suitable to the child’s age, ability and aptitude, and any special educational needs they have.
13. If a council discovers a child is absent from school for an extended period, it should consider the reasons for this, and take account of evidence from relevant parties (such as the child’s school, parents, and medical professionals). It must then decide whether it has a duty to make alternative educational provision.
14. If a council wants to see medical or other evidence, it should ask for it at the earliest opportunity. The council should account for any challenges a parent might have in obtaining evidence, and review its position based on any new evidence it receives.
15. Councils should consider any attempts the school is making to support the child. This might involve sending work home for the child to complete, arranging disability related support, placing the child on a reduced timetable, or providing online education as a short-term measure. If there is a clear, effective, and time-bound plan for reintegration then there may be no immediate role for the council in providing alternative education.

What happened

16. In 2023, Mrs X’s child Z stopped attending school. At this point Mrs X decided to electively home educate Z.
17. On 24 January 2024, Mrs X asked the Council to carry out an EHC needs assessment for Z. The Council refused Mrs X request on 28 March 2024. Mrs X appealed to the SEND Tribunal and in late May 2024, the Council agreed to carry out an EHC needs assessment for Z.
18. In November 2024, the Council put in place some tutoring for Z as they were not attending a school placement. The Council cancelled this tutoring in April 2025 on the basis it said Z was not engaging and Mrs X did not want to apply for a mainstream school place for Z. The Council also said Mrs X had opted to electively home educate Z again.
19. In April 2025, Mrs X complained to the Council about its decision to cancel Z’s tutoring. Mrs X said she could not home educate Z. Mrs X also complained about the time it had taken the Council to complete Z’s EHC needs assessment.
20. The Council responded to Mrs X’s complaint in May 2025. The Council recognised it had not completed Z’s EHC needs assessment within the statutory timescale and this was because of issues finding an Educational Psychologist (EP). The Council said it cancelled Z’s tuition as there were issues with Z’s engagement and the Council was told Mrs X wanted to electively home educate Z until the EHC needs assessment was finished.
21. In early June 2025 the Council received EP advice for Z and issued a draft EHC Plan on 6 August 2025. This plan named a mainstream school Mrs X had decided Z wanted to attend. The Council finalised Z’s EHC Plan on 20 October 2025 and Z started their school placement.
22. Mrs X remained dissatisfied and complained to the Ombudsman. In response to my enquiries the Council recognised it had delayed issuing Z’s EHC Plan and offered a financial payment to acknowledge the distress and frustration this caused. The Council acknowledged its communication with Mrs X had not been timely and offered £250 to recognise this. The Council said Z’s EHC Plan should have been finalised within 4 weeks of the draft EHC Plan and the further delay issuing the final EHC Plan, meant Z’s start at school was delayed by 6 weeks. The Council offered £500 to recognise the loss of provision Z missed.

Analysis

EHC needs assessment

23. The Council was at fault for the time taken to complete Z’s EHC needs assessment and issue a final EHC Plan.
24. Mrs X asked the Council to assess Z in late January 2024. The Council issued her with a decision not to assess Z in March 2024 but then changed its mind after Mrs X submitted an appeal to the SEND Tribunal. On this basis I have decided the 20 week period the Council had to complete the EHC needs assessment and issue a final EHC Plan should run from the end of January 2024. This means the Council should have issued Z’s final EHC Plan by mid-June 2024. Instead it took the Council until 20 October 2025 to issue a final EHC Plan.
25. The Council has explained a significant amount of this delay was down to being unable to get EP advice for Z. Where delays issuing the Plan are because of delays getting EP advice, our guidance recommends £100 payment per month from when the EHC Plan should have been issued until a final EHC Plan was issued. In this case the final EHC Plan was delayed by 16 months. I cannot say on balance what provision Z would have listed in their EHC Plan had the Council completed the process within the statutory timescale. This is because the EP advice and current EHC Plan reflect Z’s needs as they are now and not 16 months previously. On balance I cannot say the EHC needs assessment would have reached the same conclusions had it been completed within the statutory timescale.
26. The Council also recognised there was a further delays issuing the final EHC Plan from when it sent Mrs X a draft EHC Plan. The Council said this delayed Z’s school start date by 6 weeks and offered £500 to acknowledge the loss of provision. I am satisfied this is suitable to remedy the injustice caused.
27. The Council also offered Ms X £250 to recognise the communication issues she experienced during this process. I am satisfied this remedies the injustice caused to Mrs X.

Alternative provision

28. In November 2024, the Council decided to put in place alternative provision for Z. This was made up of online tutoring. The Council decided to cancel this provision in April 2025. The Council’s justification for this was Z was not good at engaging with the provision and Mrs X said she did not want to apply for a school placement and wished to electively home educate Z.
29. Mrs X disputes this and says she did not want to electively home educate Z and wanted alternative provision while their EHC needs assessment was being carried out. Mrs X also said Z was engaging with the provision. In response to a draft of this decision the Council sent us evidence showing Mrs X told it she did not want to apply for a school place for Z and said she would home educate Z until their EHC Plan was finalised. On this basis I am satisfied the Council considered whether suitable education was in place for Z and decided it was.

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Agreed Action

30. Within one month of my final decision, the Council agreed to carry out the following:
• Apologise to Mrs X for the injustice caused by the above faults. 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 Mrs X £1,600 to recognise the anxiety and frustration caused by the delays issuing Z’s final EHC Plan.
• Pay Mrs X £500 it offered for the loss of provision caused by the delays between issuing Z’s draft EHC Plan and final EHC Plan.
• Pay Mrs X £250 it offered for the communication issues she experienced relating to Z’s complaint.
31. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Decision

I find fault causing injustice. The Council agreed to the above actions to remedy the injustice caused.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman