Summary: Miss X complained the Council failed to secure suitable education for her son, Y, and delayed arranging alternative provision. The Council accepted fault causing injustice and offered a remedy. The remedy offered was inadequate. The Council agreed actions to remedy the injustice.

The complaint

1. Miss X complained the Council failed to secure suitable education for her son, Y, who has an Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan. She says Y received little or no education between July 2024 and July 2025 following the closure of his previous provision. She also complained there were delays in arranging replacement provision and poor communication from the Council.
2. Miss X says Y missed education and special educational provision specified in his EHC Plan, which affected his educational progress, wellbeing and social development. She says the situation also caused her distress and significant time and trouble.

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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)
6. The First-tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability) considers appeals against council decisions regarding special educational needs. We refer to it as the Tribunal in this decision statement.
7. 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

8. I investigated the Council's actions between July 2024 and July 2025 relating to Y's education provision, delay in arranging replacement provision, communication with Miss X and whether the remedy offered by the Council adequately reflects the injustice caused.
9. I did not investigate the Council's decisions about which school should be named in Y's EHC Plan, including whether a particular school should have been named earlier.
10. Miss X appealed the contents of Y's EHC Plan to the SEND Tribunal. The Tribunal had jurisdiction to consider Y's educational placement and the school named in Section I of the EHC Plan. These matters therefore fall outside the Ombudsman's jurisdiction. However, the Tribunal could not consider whether the Council complied with its duties to secure Y's educational provision or arrange suitable education while he was out of school. These issues remained within the Ombudsman's jurisdiction and form the subject of this investigation.
11. I also did not investigate matters before July 2024. The complaint was made to the Council in July 2025 and the Council's complaint investigation considered events from July 2024 onwards.

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How I considered this complaint

12. I considered evidence provided by Miss X and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
13. Miss 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 found

Relevant legislation and guidance

14. Section 19 of the Education Act 1996 says that the council 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.
15. 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.
16. If a child has an Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan the council also has an ongoing duty to arrange the support guaranteed by the Plan. However, this might not always be possible, such as where the SEN support is designed for the child’s normal classroom setting.

What happened

17. Y has an EHC Plan and significant special educational needs.
18. Y's existing provision ended unexpectedly in July 2024. The Council then approved a package of one-to-one tuition as replacement provision. But Miss X raised concerns about the suitability of the proposed tuition and Y did not access it.
19. The Council later arranged alternative provision in January 2025 for approximately eight hours per week. But Y did not start attending until March 2025 due to delays in implementation.
20. Miss X complained to the Council in July 2025. The Council accepted Y did not receive any provision for the remainder of July 2024 and between September 2024 and March 2025. It also accepted Y did not receive equivalent full-time education from March to July 2025, there was a delay in arranging alternative provision and communication with Miss X between October 2024 and January 2025 was inadequate.
21. The Council apologised and offered a total remedy of £4,000. This comprised of £2,400 for the period of no provision for part of July 2024 and between September 2024 to March 2025; £1,000 for periods of partial provision from March to July 2025; and £600 for Miss X's distress, time and trouble.
22. Miss X remained dissatisfied because she did not consider the remedy adequately reflected the impact on Y or herself.

Analysis and findings

23. The Council already accepted fault for the matters investigated.
24. The Council accepted Y received no educational provision for the remainder of July 2024 and between September 2024 and March 2025, a period equivalent to approximately two school terms. The Council also accepted Y received only partial provision from March to July 2025.
25. Y is a child with significant special educational needs. Y’s EHC Plan identified social, emotional and mental health needs and required specialist support to help Y engage in education and make progress. The injustice arising from the loss of provision was not limited to missed academic learning. Y also missed specialist provision intended to help him achieve the outcomes in his EHC Plan.
26. The Council's acceptance of fault and offer of a substantial remedy is welcomed. But the remedy does not adequately reflect the loss of education and associated special educational provision experienced by Y during approximately two school terms without any provision. The remedy should be increased for that reason.

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Action

27. Within one month of our final decision, the Council agreed to:
• Apologise to Miss X for the faults identified. 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 £4200 to Miss X to recognise loss of educational provision. This consists of £3200 for periods of no provision (approx. £1600 per term) and £1000 for period of partial provision.
• Pay £600 to Miss X to recognise the distress, time and trouble caused by the faults identified.
28. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Decision

29. I find fault causing injustice. The Council agreed actions to remedy injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman