City of Doncaster Council (25 005 338)
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We have upheld this complaint because the Council delayed completing the review of an Education Health and Care Plan. The Council has agreed to resolve the complaint by providing a remedy for the injustice this caused. The complainant needs to complete the complaints process about other matters.
The complaint
- Ms X complains about how the Council reviewed her son’s Mr Y’s Education Health and Care (EHC) Plan. Ms X says the Council delayed completing its review and the EHC Plan and therefore delayed Mr Y’s education provision and placed undue stress on him and his family. Ms X says that Mr Y’s essential provision is missing and that the personal budget needs to be amended accordingly
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. 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)
- The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint unless we are satisfied the organisation knows about the complaint and has had an opportunity to investigate and reply. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to notify the organisation of the complaint and give it an opportunity to investigate and reply. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(5), section 34(B)6)
- Under our information sharing agreement, we will share this decision with the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted).
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- I will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about the missing Section F provision of Mr Y’s EHC Plan and the arrangement of the personal budget. This is because the Council has only issued a Stage One response regarding the missed provision and is currently considering a complaint about how it is arranging the personal budget to meet that provision.
- However, if we were to investigate Ms X’s complaint about delay, it is likely that we would find fault. This is because the Council did delay completing the annual review and issuing an amended final EHC Plan for Mr Y, causing distress in the form of frustration and uncertainty.
- I have therefore asked the Council to apologise to Ms X within one month and to make a payment to her of £200 to remedy the distress that the delay has caused. To its credit, the Council agreed.
Final decision
- We have upheld this complaint because the Council delayed completing the review of an Education Health and Care Plan. The Council has agreed to resolve the complaint by providing a remedy for the injustice this caused. The complainant needs to complete the complaints process about other matters.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman