Summary: Mr X complained about the way the Council completed an Education, Health and Care needs assessment for Y. The Council was at fault for delay in the process, causing uncertainty and frustration and delaying Mr X's appeal rights. The Council should apologise, make a payment to address the injustice and act to prevent recurrence.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about the way the Council assessed his son, Y’s Education, Health and Care (EHC) needs and issued a final EHC Plan. Specifically, Mr X says the Council:
• Failed to complete the assessment and issue a final EHC Plan within statutory deadlines;
• Made changes to the draft that he disagrees with;
• Failed to read and include all relevant reports in the final EHC Plan; and
• Cancelled mediation and other meetings.
2. Mr X says this has caused real distress and means Y has not received the education he is entitled to.

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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. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint unless we are satisfied the organisation knows about the complaint and has had an opportunity to investigate and reply. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to notify the organisation of the complaint and give it an opportunity to investigate and reply. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(5), section 34(B)6)
6. We cannot investigate a complaint if someone has appealed to a tribunal about the same matter. We also cannot investigate a complaint if in doing so we would overlap with the role of a tribunal to decide something which has been or could have been referred to it to resolve using its own powers. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)
7. 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.
8. Due to the restrictions on our powers to investigate where there is an appeal right, there will be cases where there has been past injustice which neither we, nor the Tribunal, can remedy. The courts have found that the fact a complainant will be left without a remedy does not mean we can investigate a complaint. (R (ER) v Commissioner for Local Administration, ex parte Field) 1999 EWHC 754 (Admin). 
9. 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)
10. 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

11. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
12. We cannot usually investigate complaints about events that took place more than 12 months before they were brought to the Ombudsman. We can only exercise discretion to look back further if there are good reasons to do so.
13. Mr X first brought his complaint to the Ombudsman in October 2025, meaning events that took place before October 2024 have been raised late. However, as the delay in raising a complaint was due to the Council not completing Y’s EHC needs assessment in line with statutory time limits, I have exercised discretion to look back to August 2024 when the Council first received a request to complete an EHC needs assessment.
14. We cannot investigate a complaint about something that has been or could have been appealed to a tribunal.
15. As Mr X had the right to appeal the content of Y’s EHC Plans to the SEND Tribunal, including any changes to the draft and how much weight was given to particular reports or evidence, I have not investigated these issues.
16. We also cannot usually investigate complaints unless we are satisfied the Council has had a chance to look into them first. This includes events that are linked to or ongoing from the complaint that has been brought to us. As Mr X first brought his complaint to the Ombudsman in October 2025, I have investigated up to that point.
17. I have investigated whether there was fault in the way the Council completed the EHC needs assessment process for Y between when the request was made in August 2024, and when Mr X brought his complaint to the Ombudsman in October 2025.
18. Any mention below of events that took place before August 2024 or after October 2025 are for reference only.

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How I considered this complaint

19. I considered evidence provided by Mr X and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
20. Mr 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

EHC needs assessment

21. A child or young person with special educational needs (SEN) may have an EHC Plan. This document sets out the child’s needs and what arrangements should be made to meet them. The EHC Plan is set out in sections. We cannot direct changes to the sections about their needs, education, or the name of the educational placement. Only the Tribunal or the council can do this. 
22. On receiving a request for an EHC needs assessment, a council must decide whether an assessment is necessary. As part of an EHC needs assessment, a council must seek advice from the parent, head teacher of the school, and from any other professionals, including an Educational Psychologist (EP).
23. Statutory guidance ‘Special educational needs and disability Code of Practice: 0 to 25 years’ (the Code) sets out the process for carrying out EHC assessments and producing EHC Plans. The guidance is based on the Children and Families Act 2014 and the SEN Regulations 2014. It says:
• The process of assessing needs and developing EHC Plans “must be carried out in a timely manner”. Steps must be completed as soon as practicable;
• If a Council decides to assess a child’s EHC needs, they must gather information from relevant professionals, who must respond within six weeks;
• If the Council decides not to issue an EHC Plan, it must explain this within 16 weeks from the date of the request.
• If it decides to issue an EHC Plan, the Council must then send a draft plan to the child’s parents, giving them 15 days to comment; and
• 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.
24. Following completion of an EHC needs assessment, if the Council decides an EHC Plan is not necessary it must notify the child's parents or the young person of its decision and of their right to appeal that decision.
25. Councils must arrange for a child’s parents or the young person to receive information about mediation as an informal way to resolve disputes about decisions that can be appealed to the Tribunal. Parents need to consider mediation and get a ‘mediation certificate’ before they can appeal to the Tribunal. They do not have to agree to attend mediation.
26. We can look at matters that do not have a right of appeal, are not connected to an appeal, or are not a consequence of an appeal. For example, delays in the process before an appeal right started.

What happened

27. I have summarised below some key events leading to Mr X’s complaint. While I have considered everything said and submitted, this is not intended to be a detailed account of what took place.
28. On 6 August 2024 the Council received a request to complete an EHC needs assessment for Y from his school.
29. The Council considered the request and wrote to Mr X on 3 September 2024 to confirm it had decided not to complete an EHC needs assessment.
30. Following mediation, the Council agreed to complete an EHC needs assessment, which started on 17 October 2024.
31. On 28 January 2025, the Council issued a decision not to issue an EHC Plan for Y.
32. Mediation relating to this decision took place on 6 March 2025 and resulted in the Council agreeing to issue an EHC Plan.
33. The Council issued a draft EHC Plan in June 2025.
34. Mr X complained to the Council in July 2025 as he said it had failed to put specific provision in Y’s plan that was identified as necessary. Mr X questioned the Council’s decision-making and said it had failed to follow the statutory process for completing an EHC needs assessment.
35. In July 2025 the Council issued a further draft EHC Plan.
36. The Council responded to Mr X’s complaint in August 2025. The Council said it had not failed to include any specifically identified provision. The Council said it had initially taken the view Y’s needs could be met from resources readily available within school but agreed to issue an EHC plan following mediation. The Council agreed there had been difficulty arranging dates for mediation and apologised for this as well as delays throughout the process.
37. On 23 September 2025 the Council issued a final EHC Plan for Y.

Analysis

38. The Council received a request to assess Y EHC needs on 6 August 2024. It then had six weeks to decide whether or not to complete the assessment, meaning by 17 September 2024. The Council informed Mr X it did not intend to complete an EHC needs assessment on 3 September 2024, within the statutory time limits, and I do not find it at fault here.
39. Following mediation, the Council agreed to complete an EHC needs assessment on 17 October 2024. From that point it had ten weeks to let Mr X know whether it intended to issue an EHC Plan for Y, meaning by 26 December 2024. The Council informed Mr X it had decided not to issue an EHC Plan for Y on 28 January 2025, over a month later than the deadline to do so. This is fault and caused uncertainty for Mr X as well as frustrating his appeal rights, which is injustice.
40. Following mediation, the Council agreed to issue an EHC Plan for Y on 6 March 2025. The Council then had four weeks to issue a final EHC Plan for Y, meaning by 3 April 2025. However, the Council did not finalise Y’s EHC Plan until 23 September 2025, over five months after the deadline to do so. This is a considerable delay which caused significant uncertainty and frustration for Mr X, as well as frustrating his rights to appeal to the Tribunal. The delay also created uncertainty around whether Y was missing out on special educational provision he would have been entitled to between April 2025 and September 2025. This is injustice.
41. Mr X has said the Council cancelled mediation and meetings during the process. Responding to Mr X’s complaint the Council agreed there was some difficulty in arranging meetings and has apologised for this. I understand this would have been a frustrating situation for Mr X but I find the Council’s apology suitable to recognise any injustice here.

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Action

42. To address the injustice identified above, the Council should carry out the following actions:
43. Within one month:
• Provide Mr X with a written apology for the injustice caused by the failure to complete Y’s EHC needs assessment within the statutory time limits. 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 Mr X £200 in recognition of the injustice caused by the delays in completing Y’s EHC needs assessment and issuing a final EHC Plan for him.
44. Within three months:
• Produce an action plan to demonstrate how the Council will meet statutory timescales for EHC needs assessments going forward.
45. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Decision

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

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman