Summary: We will not investigate this complaint the Council failed to transfer an Education Health and Care Plan to a different Local Authority. There is not enough evidence of fault to justify our involvement.

The complaint

1. Miss X complained the Council failed to send a copy of her child’s (Y’s) Education Health and Care (EHC) Plan, to a different Local Authority, after she moved. She said that mean the new council (Council 2), had struggled to maintain the EHC Plan. She said the Council had provided inconsistent and misleading communication, causing stress, anxiety and exhaustion. She said she had chased the Council to provide the information.
2. Miss X wants the Council to apologise, pay a financial remedy and ensure all documents are sent to Council 2. She wants it to change its internal processes, so these errors do not happen again.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
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. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide:

• there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
7. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

8. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint the Council failed to send Y’s EHC Plan to Council 2.
9. Firstly, the complaint is late. Miss X moved in 2023. If she was unhappy in how the Council had transferred Y’s EHC Plan it would have been reasonable for her to complain to us sooner. There is no good reason to exercise discretion and consider this now.
10. Secondly, the Council has provided evidence it sent the full case files to Council 2 in October 2023. Therefore, there is nothing worthwhile to achieve by investigating.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because it is late.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman