Summary: There was fault by the Council. It did not put in place most of the provision in Section F of an Education, Health and Care Plan for half a term. And it did not put in place the Teaching Assistant hours for a further month. The Council has agreed to apologise and make a symbolic payment. This remedies the injustice of stress and lack of educational provision to Ms X and her child.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Ms X, complains the Council delayed providing the provision in Section F of an Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan issued on 19 May 2025. Ms X says her child, Y, has missed out on education and it has caused her stress and financial loss.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)
3. 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 have and have not investigated

4. I have investigated the complaint about the lack of educational provision from 19 May 2025 when the EHC Plan was issued by the Council. I have not investigated matters before May 2025. We issued another decision which covered this period and explained why we were unable to investigate given Ms X had appealed to the Tribunal.
5. Ms X complained to the Ombudsman in July 2025 and so we would not normally investigate events past this date. However, as there is an ongoing injustice from the lack of provision I have investigated events up till the end of September 2025. Ms X will need to make a new complaint about events from 3 October 2025 onwards.

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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 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

8. 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. 
9. Y has an EHC Plan. This was issued on 19 May 2025 and consisted of EOTAS (Education Other Than At School) provision.
10. Ms X made an official complaint on 5 June 2025 that the provision in the EHC Plan was not in place apart from one hour per week mentoring sessions (the EHC Plan requires 2 hours per week). The Council said on 20 June 2025 that it was working to ensure all remaining provision was arranged without further delay and would share a timetable of start dates by 27 June 2025.
11. Ms X made a stage 2 complaint on 28 June that she had not received a timetable and no provision other than the mentoring was in place.
12. The Council responded on 17 July 2025 that it would arrange to put in place 6 hours of teaching and 12 hours of teaching assistant time by 25 July 2025. The Council said that it could not arrange the small group communication support now Y was not attending school. However, it gave Ms X the link to a provision that organises social activities for children.
13. The Council said it was working to arrange play/art therapy and a referral had been made for forest school sessions from September 2025. The Council also agreed to pay for swimming lessons which Y was already taking and gave a link to a card which would enable Y to swim for free.
14. The Council said that it intended to offer additional sessions of provision, to make up for sessions that were missed over the school holidays or during the next term. The Council also apologised and offered symbolic payment of £300 towards the stress caused by the delay.
15. Ms X has said that Y cannot tolerate intensive provision and would like a financial remedy for the missed education.
16. The Council agreed a personal budget for the provision on 19 August 2025. The Council proposed to pay for 6 hours of tuition, 12 hours of Teaching assistant time and 2 hours if mentoring weekly directly. The rest of the provision was funded by direct payments to Ms X.
17. In response to my enquiries, the Council said from 19 May 2025 until the end of term, only one hour per week mentoring was provided.
18. From September 2025 Ms X received a direct payment to organise part of the provision in Section F, so she was able to put this in place.
19. The Council has said that 6 hours per week tuition was arranged by the Council from 5 September 2025 and the 2 hours of mentoring. The Council also put in place the teaching assistant from 3 October 2025.

Law and Guidance

20. 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). The Courts have said the duty to arrange this provision is owed personally to the child and is non-delegable. This means if the council asks another organisation to make the provision and that organisation fails to do so, the council remains liable (R v London Borough of Harrow ex parte M [1997] ELR 62), (R v North Tyneside Borough Council [2010] EWCA Civ 135)  
21. We accept it is not practical for councils to keep a ‘watching brief’ on whether schools and others are providing all the special educational provision in section F for every pupil with an EHC Plan. We consider councils should be able to demonstrate appropriate oversight in gathering information to fulfil their legal duty. At a minimum we expect them to have systems in place to: 

• check the special educational provision is in place when a new or amended EHC Plan is issued or there is a change in educational placement; 
• check the provision at least annually during the EHC review process; and 
• quickly investigate and act on complaints or concerns raised that the provision is not in place at any time. 

22. A Personal Budget is the amount of money the council has identified it needs to pay to secure the provision in a child or young person’s EHC Plan. One way that councils can deliver a Personal Budget is through direct payments. These are cash payments made to the child’s parent or the young person so they can commission the provision in the EHC Plan themselves.
23. A child’s parent or the young person has the right to request a Personal Budget when the council has completed an EHC needs assessment and confirmed it will prepare an EHC Plan. They may also request a Personal Budget during a statutory review of an existing EHC Plan.
24. The final allocation of a Personal Budget must be sufficient to secure the agreed provision specified in the EHC Plan and must be set out as part of that provision.
25. If the council refuses a request for a direct payment, it must set out the reasons in writing and inform the child’s parent or the young person of their right to request a formal review of the decision.
26. The council’s (and health commissioning body’s where relevant) duty to secure or arrange provision specified in EHC Plans is only discharged through a direct payment when the provision has been acquired for, or on behalf of, the child’s parent or the young person.

My analysis

27. The Council did not put in place the provision or a direct payment for any provision in Section F of the EHC Plan, apart from one hour of mentoring for the second half of the summer term (from 19 May 2025 until the end of July 2025). This was fault.
28. The Council has offered to put in place extra provision, to replace the missed sessions. But as it is now a year later, I do not consider this to be a suitable remedy, especially as Ms X considers it is unlikely that Y will be able to engage in the extra provision.
29. Our guidance on remedies says ‘where fault has resulted in a loss of educational provision, we will usually recommend a remedy payment of between £900 to £2,400 per term to acknowledge the harm caused by that loss’.
30. Y has an EOTAS package as they are unable to attend school, so I consider a payment at the top end of the remedy range is appropriate. This would be £1200 for the half of a term from May 2025, which I have reduced to £1000 as Y did receive weekly mentoring sessions.
31. From September 2025, most of the EOTAS package was available to Y via the direct payments and tuition sessions. I understand from Ms X, that Y is struggling to engage with some of the provision though it is technically in place. However, the Teaching Assistant was not in place for the first month and so I propose an additional payment of £200 for the missed provision until 3 October 2025.

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Action

32. Within one month of the date of the decision on this complaint the Council has agreed to:
• Apologise to Ms X. 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 Ms X £1200 in total, which includes the £300 already offered by the Council.
33. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Decision

34. I have completed my investigation and find fault causing injustice. The Council has agreed actions to remedy injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman