Summary: There was fault by the Council which failed to ensure Mr Y received special educational provision for a year, failed to keep a written record of his annual review or to issue an amended Education Health and Care Plan following the review and did not communicate with his mother Ms X. The Council will issue an apology, a payment, Mr Y’s final Plan and reminders to council officers.

The complaint

1. Ms X complained the Council failed to act when her son Mr Y was permanently excluded from college. This meant he did not receive any education for a year. She also complained the Council refused to provide a new case co-ordinator.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
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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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered evidence provided by Ms X and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
7. Ms 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 have and have not investigated

8. Mr Y is a young adult who likely lacks mental capacity to complain. Our view is that we cannot rule out Ms X’s complaint on his behalf on the basis that is partially late because of his lack of capacity. The timeframe I have investigated is from January 2024 to June 2025. The latter date is when Ms X complained to us.

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What I found

Relevant law and guidance

9. Our Principles of Good Administrative Practice is guidance on what we expect of councils delivering public services. We expect them to be open and accountable. This includes keeping proper records.

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. The EHC Plan is set out in sections, including F – special educational provision and I – educational placement.

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 cease to maintain 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) 
12. Where the council proposes to amend an EHC Plan, the law says it must send the child’s parent or the young person a copy of the existing (non-amended) Plan and an accompanying notice providing details of the proposed amendments, including copies of any evidence to support the proposed changes. (Section 22(2) Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014 and SEN Code paragraph 9.194). Case law sets out this should happen within four weeks of the date of the review meeting. Case law also found councils must issue the final amended EHC Plan within a further eight weeks.
13. The council has a duty to make sure the child or young person receives the special educational provision set out in section F of an EHC Plan (section 42 Children and Families Act 2014).

What happened

14. Mr Y is an adult with special educational needs. His most recent final amended EHC Plan is June 2022. The educational placement named in Section I was a further education college for learners with moderate to profound learning and physical disabilities (College A). Provision in Section F included speech and language therapy and occupational therapy.
15. Mr Y was permanently excluded from College A in January 2024. College A told the Council about the exclusion at the time.
16. The EHC case co-ordinator organised an annual review meeting which took place in March. The Council has not provided a written record of the annual review meeting. Email exchanges indicate College A did not hold the annual review on the Council’s behalf, saying it would attend but not lead the review as Mr Y was no longer a student there.
17. The Council issued a draft EHC Plan July 2024. It also consulted with an educational placement (Placement B) which said it could meet Mr Y’s needs. Ms X said it was not suitable and suggested Centre B for Mr Y. The Council’s internal records said officers did not send out a consultation to Centre B because it was not a registered education provider, but a social care day centre.
18. The Council issued another draft EHC Plan in October 2024. Ms X asked the Council to consult with another organisation, but this was also not a registered educational provider. Ms X suggested College C as a possible placement.
19. Ms X and council officers from the EHC Team met in December 2024. The Council agreed to consult with College C a special further educational college which Ms X agreed. The consultation letter was sent in the last week of January 2025.
20. The Council commissioned one to one tuition for Y for ten hours a week at the end of January. Tuition started at the beginning of February 2025.
21. The Council contacted College C in the middle of February to chase up the consultation. It said it had no places until September 2025. It offered Y a place for September, subject to the Council agreeing funding. It also said the Council needed to amend Y’s EHC Plan and suggested amendments to provision in Section F.
22. Ms X complained to the Council in January 2025. The Council responded under both stages of its complaint procedure. It upheld Ms X’s complaints, apologised for delays and offered:
• £1800 for missed educational provision between January 2024 and January 2025
• £200 for missed therapies
• £100 to reflect the inconvenience caused by delayed appeal rights
• £100 for distress and frustration caused by poor communication.
23. The Council said it could not assign a new case co-ordinator to Mr Y because of staff shortages.
24. Ms X was unhappy with the Council’s response to her complaint and complained to the LGSCO in June 2025.
25. Mr Y started a course at College C in September 2025.
26. The Council told us it had not issued Mr Y’s amended final EHC Plan and so the latest final Plan remains as June 2022.

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Findings

27. There was fault by the Council because it:
1. Failed to secure the special educational provision in Mr Y’s EHC Plan when his college placement ended suddenly in January 2024. The Council’s inaction was in breach of the duty in Section 42 of the Children and Families Act. Mr Y has a loss of a year of special educational provision, including therapies between January 2024 and January 2025. Mr Y also has a loss of therapies during the period he received tuition (February to July 2025.) The Council has recognised fault, apologised and offered a payment which is a partial remedy.
2. Failed to keep a written record of Y’s annual review in March 2024. The failure to do so was not in line with our expectations and was fault causing uncertainty about the matters discussed and agreed actions.
3. Failed to issue a final amended EHC Plan within 12 weeks of the annual review meeting in March 2024. The Council had the opportunity to issue a final amended Plan in September 2024 as one placement had said it could meet Mr Y’s needs. Although this was not Ms X’s preferred option, it would have allowed Mr Y to receive educational provision while giving Ms X appeal rights.
28. The Council is yet to issue a final amended Plan. This continuing fault has caused an ongoing injustice of avoidable frustration and a delay in appeal rights.
29. I do not uphold the complaint about a failure to allocate a new case co-ordinator. It has given an appropriate reason why it cannot change staffing. This is a matter for the Council and there is no fault.  

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Agreed Action

30. Within one month, the Council will issue:
1. A written reminder to all officers in the EHC reviewing team advising them to ensure that (1) written records are made of annual review meetings which are council-held and (2) they keep to the legal timescales for completing the annual review and EHC Plan amendment process.
2. A written apology. 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 the apology I have recommended. in my findings.
3. Y’s amended final EHC Plan to reflect the change of placement and SEP he is now receiving
4. A payment of £4000. This payment reflects:
1. Mr Y’s loss of special educational provision (including therapies) between January 2024 and January 2025
2. Avoidable distress and inconvenience for Ms X caused by poor communication and delay in appeal rights.
3. Mr Y’s loss of therapies between February and June 2024 when he was getting tuition only.

I have taken into account: the provision in the existing final Plan of 2022; a placement was declined by Ms X in September 2024 and that Y was not in a period where he was preparing for public exams.

The payment of £4000 is instead of those the Council has offered.

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

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Decision

32. 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