Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s delay in issuing a final Education, Health and Care Plan for Mr X’s child and failure to ensure the provision in the Plan was made. The Council has offered a proportionate remedy for Mr X and his child’s injustice.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained that the Council:

• Delayed in issuing the final Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan for his child, Y. This meant Y did not have an up to date EHC Plan for his first term at college.
• Failed to ensure the provision in section F of Y’s EHC Plan was delivered, which prevented Y from attending college.

2. Mr X says the delays and failure to deliver the provision also caused significant distress to him and his family.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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)
4. 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

5. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
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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My assessment

8. In 2023, Mr X applied for an EHC needs assessment for his son, Y. The Council agreed to issue an EHC Plan. It issued the final EHC Plan in November 2024. The Council should complete the assessment process and issue a final EHC Plan within 20 weeks. The Council took 31 weeks longer than it should have done to issue the final EHC Plan for Y.
9. Mr X made a complaint to us in October 2025 about a number of matters, including the delay in issuing the EHC Plan. We will not investigate the period of delay between November 2023 and October 2024 as these matters are more than 12 months old. Mr X did not pursue his complaint with the Council between August 2024 and September 2025. It was also open to Mr X to make a complaint to us about this matter before October 2025. So, there are no good reasons to investigate the delay between November 2023 and October 2024. We will, therefore, only consider the delay between October and November 2024.
10. In September 2025, Mr X complained to the Council that Y’s college could not make the provision set out in his EHC Plan. The Council acknowledged the college was unable to meet Y’s needs in line with his EHC Plan. This caused Y to miss provision. The Council offered a remedy of £4320 to acknowledge Y’s loss of provision. The Council also offered a remedy of £600 for the distress caused to Mr X and his family and £300 to acknowledge the distress caused by a lack of communication from relevant officers.
11. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint as the remedy of £4320 offered by the Council is sufficient and proportionate to acknowledge Y’s loss of provision. It is also in line with our guidance on remedies. The Council’s offered remedy of £900 to acknowledge the distress caused to Mr X by the loss of provision and poor communication is sufficient and proportionate and in line with our guidance on remedies. It is also sufficient to acknowledge the distress caused by the delay in issuing Y’s EHC Plan between October and November 2024. An investigation of Mr X’s complaint would not achieve anymore for him.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint as the Council has offered a sufficient and proportionate remedy for his and Y’s injustice. An investigation would not achieve more for him.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman