Summary: We have upheld this complaint about the Council’s failure to complete an Education Health and Care Needs Assessment for Miss X’s child within the statutory timescale. The Council has offered to provide a proportionate remedy and this removes the need for us to investigate.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains about delay in the Education Health and Care (EHC) Plan process.  She says the Council has failed to meet the relevant timescales in the SEN Code of Practice.

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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 provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we are satisfied with the actions an organisation has taken or proposes to take. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(7), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by Miss X and the Council
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
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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My assessment

6. Miss X applied for an EHC Plan for her child on 23 July 2024. The Council initially refused to carry out an assessment but reversed its decision, following mediation, on 14 January 2025. The Council should have completed the assessment process and told Miss X if it intended to issue a plan within 10 weeks of the agreement to assess decision, by 25 March 2025  If the Council decided to issue an EHC Plan it should have done so by 22 April 2025. The Council has not yet completed the process and has attributed the delay in part to the lack of educational psychology resource.
7. The delay in assessing education health and care needs due to the lack of specialist advice amounts to service failure.
8. We are satisfied that the Council has a plan in place to address the lack of specialist advice. In response to our findings in a previous case it sent us an action plan of its service improvements.

Agreed actions

9. In response to our enquiries the Council offered to provide a remedy to Miss X for the frustration and uncertainty caused by its delay.
10. The Council has offered to:
• Pay Miss X £100 for each month of delay to date and for a maximum of six months from the date of this decision.
• If the Council decides to issue an EHC Plan the delay should remedy should be calculated from 22 April 2025 until either the Council issues Miss X the final EHC Plan, or until 20 May 2026 (whichever comes first).
• If the Council decides not to issue a plan, the remedy should be calculated from 25 March 2025 until either the date the Council notifies Miss X of its decision, or until 20 May 2026 (whichever comes first).
• The Council will make this payment within four weeks of the relevant date.
11. I consider the remedy offered by the Council is suitable and that it is taking steps to address the issue at the heart of this complaint. It is therefore unlikely investigation would achieve anything more for Miss X.
12. My decision takes into account that the shortage of educational psychologists is a national issue affecting councils all over the country. However, the Council confirms it has now received advice from an educational psychologist and any further delay would therefore be the result of failures elsewhere in the process. If therefore the delay continues beyond 20 May 2026 Miss X may make a new complaint to the Council. Once the complaint has exhausted the Council’s complaints process, and in the event Miss X remains unhappy, she may refer the complaint to us and we will consider whether to investigate it further.

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Final decision

13. We have upheld this complaint. The Council has agreed to resolve the complaint by providing a proportionate remedy to the injustice caused to Miss X.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman