Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Education, Health and Care plan process. This is because the Council has agreed to an appropriate remedy for the injustice caused by the delay.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complained the Council wrongly refused her requests it assess her child for an Education, Health and Care Plan, leading to avoidable delays.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word fault to refer to these. 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)
3. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we are satisfied with the actions an organisation has taken or proposes to take. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(7), as amended)
4. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone has a right of appeal, reference or review to a tribunal about the same matter. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to use this right. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)
5. We cannot investigate a complaint if someone has appealed to a tribunal about the same matter. We also cannot investigate a complaint if in doing so we would overlap with the role of a tribunal to decide something which has been or could have been referred to it to resolve using its own powers. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)
6. The First-tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability) considers appeals against council decisions regarding special educational needs. We refer to it as the Tribunal in this decision statement.
7. Under our information sharing agreement, we will share this decision with the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted)

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

8. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
9. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

Back to top

My assessment

10. Mrs X asked the Council to assess her child for an EHC Plan. It refused two requests but agreed after Mrs X appealed. The Council should have issued a final EHC Plan by 06 August 2025. The Council issued a final EHC Plan on 07 October 2025 – two months late.
11. We will not consider Mrs X’s concerns about the Council’s decisions to refuse her requests it assess her child. That is because we cannot consider complaints when it was reasonable for a person to appeal to a tribunal, or when a person has used their appeal rights. This exclusion applies until the Council agrees to the request or the Tribunal issues its decision. Much of Mrs X’s complaint is therefore outside our jurisdiction.
12. We can, however, consider any delay by the Council once it agreed to assess Mrs X’s child for an EHC Plan. The Council has accepted it has taken longer than it should to complete the process due to a shortage of Educational Psychologists. This is service failure. This has caused Mrs X frustration and distress.
13. The Council has previously assured the Ombudsman of the actions it is taking to address delays in the EHC Plan process. We are therefore satisfied the Council has a plan to address this issue.
14. In cases like this, we consider a payment of £100 to be a suitable remedy for each month of delay. We therefore asked the Council to remedy the injustice caused by making a payment to Mrs X to resolve the complaint early. The Council has agreed to pay Mrs X £200 for the two months of delay. It should make this payment within four weeks of this decision.
15. The Council has agreed a suitable remedy and is taking to steps to address the issue at the heart of this complaint. We will not therefore investigate.

Back to top

Final decision

16. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because the Council has offered a suitable remedy for the identified injustice.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman