Summary: The Council was at fault for failing to give Mrs X the information she needed to make an informed choice about whether to commission a private educational psychologist assessment for her child’s Education, Health and Care Plan assessment. This meant Mrs X paid for the assessment unnecessarily. The Council will reimburse Mrs X the cost of the assessment and take action to prevent similar fault in future.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complained the Council wrongly refused to reimburse her for the cost of a private educational psychologist report which she sought to reduce her child, W’s, wait for the outcome of their Education, Health and Care Plan needs assessment. Mrs X said this meant she had to pay a large sum unfairly.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)
3. When considering complaints we make findings based on the balance of probabilities. This means that we look at the available relevant evidence and decide what was more likely to have happened.
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 Mrs X and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
7. Mrs X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered their comments before making my final decision.

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What I found

8. 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 or young person’s needs and what arrangements should be made to meet them.
9. Before a child or young person can have an EHC Plan, their council must decide if there is enough information to justify it assessing their needs. If the council decides it will assess the child, it must send that decision to the child’s parent or guardian. Councils normally do this in the form of a decision letter.
10. As part of the assessment, councils must gather advice from relevant professionals (SEND Regulation 6(1)). This includes an educational psychologist.
11. Following the assessment, the council decides if it will issue the child an EHC Plan. If the council goes on to issue 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).

What happened

12. During W’s EHC needs assessment Mrs X complained to the Ombudsman about the length of time it was taking. We found the Council had not yet issued W’s Plan and that the assessment had already taken too long.
13. The delay assessing W occurred because there is a national shortage of educational psychologists. In order to reduce the delay, Mrs X commissioned a private EP assessment for W.
14. The Council decided it would use the private EP assessment in W’s EHC Plan instead of its own EP and issued the final Plan.
15. Subsequently, Mrs X asked the Council to refund her the cost of the EP assessment. The Council refused.
16. The Council told the Ombudsman that when a parent commissions a private EP assessment it considers if the assessment is of suitable quality, to meet its requirements for EHC needs assessments. If it is, the Council will not require the child to have a Council-commissioned EP assessment as well. The Council confirmed that purchasing a private EP assessment does not mean a child’s EHC needs assessment will be completed any sooner than if the child had waited for a Council commissioned EP assessment.
17. The Council said it is “very clear” with parents that it will not reimburse the cost of a private EP assessment, so it is up to parents to decide if they still want to commission an assessment. It said staff tell parents this if and when they ask if they can commission a private assessment.
18. The Council said Mrs X was aware the Council would not reimburse her before she paid for the private assessment. It was unable to provide evidence of this.

Findings

19. Mrs X commissioned a private EP assessment in the belief it would reduce the delay waiting for the outcome of W’s EHC needs assessment and ultimately, W’s final EHC Plan. This was a reasonable view to take, given the wait for an EP assessment was the reason for the delay. However, the Council had failed to tell Mrs X that obtaining the private assessment would not mean W would receive their final EHC Plan any sooner, or that it would not reimburse her even if it used the private assessment in W’s final EHC Plan. This was fault and meant Mrs X paid for the assessment when she likely would not have done so had the Council given her the necessary information to make an informed choice.
20. The Council does not have a suitable mechanism for telling parents it will not reimburse the cost of private EP assessments, or that obtaining such advice does not necessarily mean their child will receive any final EHC Plan sooner. Instead, it relies on staff telling parents that information if and when the parent asks if they can commission a private EP assessment. Such an approach means it is possible that in the future the Council will be at fault again for failing to give parents suitable information about its approach to private EP assessments. Therefore, I have made service improvement recommendations below.

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Action

21. Within one month of my final decision, the Council will take the following actions:
1. Reimburse Mrs X the cost of W’s educational psychologist report.
2. Add information on its website about its approach to parents commissioning private educational psychologist assessments. The Council will also add that information to the letters it sends to parents when it decides it will assess a child for an EHC Plan. This should ensure parents can make informed decisions.
3. Prepare a policy or guidance for staff which sets out the Council’s approach to private educational psychologist assessments. The policy will include that the Council can choose to act outside of its policy and reimburse a parent in exceptional circumstances. It will also include examples of some of the exceptional circumstances which might justify reimbursement.
22. The Council will provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Decision

23. I find fault causing injustice. The Council has agreed actions to remedy that injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman