Summary: The Council was at fault for the time taken to complete a child’s Education, Health and Care needs assessment. This meant the child had to wait much longer than they should have to receive an Education, Health and Care Plan. The Council was not at fault for failing to provide alternative provision to the child. The Council agreed to apologise and make a payment to recognise the delays finalising an Education, Health and Care Plan.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I refer to as CX, complains the Council:
• Delayed carrying out an assessment of their child’s Education, Health and Care needs and delayed issuing a final Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan.
• Did not provide their child with suitable education when they stopped attending school in 2023.
2. CX said their child had to wait longer than they should have to receive an EHC Plan and has fallen behind with their 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. 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)
5. 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

6. I have not investigated CX’s complaint that the Council did not put in place suitable education for their child from January 2023 until July 2024. This is because too much time has passed since these events occurred and I can see no good reasons why CX could not have complained to us sooner about this.
7. I have considered whether the Council provided alternative provision for CX’s child from the start of the Autumn term 2024.

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How I considered this complaint

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

Law and guidance

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. 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. 
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.
• 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);
12. As part of the assessment, councils must gather advice from relevant professionals (SEND Regulation 6(1)). This includes psychological advice and information from an Educational Psychologist (EP).
13. 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.
14. If the council decides it must arrange alternative provision, it needs to arrange provision based on the child’s individual needs. It should also have a review process to ensure the provision remains in the child’s best interests. Councils can decide a child cannot cope with full-time provision, especially where the reason for their non-attendance is medical. When this happens, the Council should provide reasons for the amount of provision it arranges.

What happened

15. On 1 July 2024, CX asked the Council to carry out an EHC needs assessment for their child, Y. At this time Y was not attending their school placement
16. On 2 August 2024, the Council agreed to carry out an EHC needs assessment for Y.
17. In September 2024, Y’s school contacted the Council and asked it to provide alternative education for Y.
18. The Council put in place online learning for Y in late September 2024. This was done as a temporary measure while it found more permanent alternative provision and until the EHCP was completed. The Council held a meeting with CX, Y’s school and its alternative provision team in October 2024 and decided it would put in place a timetable of alternative provision with a home tutor for Y. CX said the provision was delivered by a wellbeing coach. The Council said the expectation was this could be increased over time depending on what Y could manage.
19. The Council put in place more permanent alternative provision in November 2024 and deregistered Y from the online learning it had put in place previously.
20. The Council reviewed how Y was getting on with the alternative provision in January 2025, March 2025, May 2025 and July 2025.
21. In June 2025, CX complained to the Council about the delays completing Y’s EHC needs assessment and that Y had not been assessed by an EP yet.
22. The Council responded to CX’s complaint in late June 2025 and told them it had not met the statutory deadlines and there was a backlog due to shortages of EP’s.
23. In late August 2025, the Council received advice from an EP. The Council issued Y’s final EHC Plan on 28 October 2025.

Analysis

Delays issuing Y’s EHC Plan

24. CX requested an EHC needs assessment for Y on 1 July 2024. The Council told them on 2 August 2024 it would assess Y’s needs. This was within the six week timescale for the Council to make this decision.
25. The Council only obtained EP advice for the assessment in late August 2025. I cannot see what steps the Council attempted to take to get this advice sooner given the significant delays. After receiving the EP advice it took the Council two months to produce a final EHC Plan.
26. The delays assessing Y and issuing a final EHC Plan caused CX frustration and uncertainty. CX said the process caused them extreme anxiety and delayed Y getting support they were entitled to receive. I cannot say on balance what provision Y 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 Y’s needs as they are now and not 11 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.

Alternative provision

27. I cannot investigate CX’s concerns about provision before July 2024. This is because they are over 12 months since CX complained to us. I cannot see good reasons why CX could not have complained sooner.
28. In September 2024, the Council received a request for alternative provision from Y’s school. At this stage the Council agreed to put in place alternative provision for Y. It put in place some online learning as a temporary measure whilst it sourced some more permanent provision.
29. After meeting with Y’s school and CX the Council decided to put in place provision involving home tutoring for Y. This was in place from late November 2024 and consisted of 6 hours of home tutoring with a view to increase this depending on how Y could engage with the provision.
30. Over the course of the school year the Council carried out regular reviews of how Y was progressing. Overall I am satisfied the Council considered whether it had a duty to provide alternative education for Y and put in place provision it considered suitable given the difficulties Y had engaging with provision. The Council kept this under regular review. I do not consider it was at fault.

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Agreed Action

31. Within one month of my decision the Council agreed to carry out the following:
• Apologise to CX 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 CX £1,100 to recognise the frustration and uncertainty experienced as a result of the delays issuing Y’s EHC Plan. I have calculated this at £100 per month for an 11 month delay.
32. 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