Summary: We have upheld part of this complaint about the Council’s failure to complete an Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment for Ms X’s child within the statutory timescale. The Council has agreed to take appropriate action. It would therefore not be proportionate to investigate. We will not investigate other parts of this complaint about an Education, Health and Care Plan. It would be reasonable for the complainant to take this part of the complaint to the Tribunal.

The complaint

1. Ms X complained the Council delayed and mishandled her child, Y’s Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan. She said her child has been out of education for a number of years and the EHC Plan names a mainstream school. She said this has caused distress and damaged her family life. She would like the Council to acknowledge the failures and apologise, award her compensation and put in place measures to ensure this doesn’t happen to other families.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone has a right of appeal, reference or review to a tribunal about the same matter. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to use this right. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)
4. 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.
5. 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

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

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My assessment

8. Ms X said the Council named a school in her child’s EHC Plan that is not suitable. The Tribunal considers appeals against the content of EHC Plans. The Tribunal can direct changes to an EHC Plan, we cannot. We will not investigate this part of Ms X’s complaint because it is reasonable for Ms X to appeal to the Tribunal if she is unhappy with the school named in her child’s EHC Plan.
9. Ms X complained the Council delayed in issuing Y’s EHC Plan. The EHC assessment was requested in November 2023, the plan should have been issued in March 2024. Y’s EHC Plan was finalised in November 2025, which represents a delay of 19 months.
10. In its complaint response, the Council acknowledged the delay and explained what it had done to improve how EHC assessment requests were processed.
11. If we were to investigate this complaint, it is likely that we would find fault with the Council for the delay in agreeing Y’s EHC Plan causing Ms X frustration and distress. The delay in assessing education health and care needs due to the lack of specialist advice amounts to service failure.
12. We are satisfied 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.

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Agreed Action

13. The Council agreed to resolve part of Ms X’s complaint by taking the following action within four weeks of our final decision:

• a) issue Ms X a symbolic payment of £1900 to recognise the frustration and uncertainty caused to the family by the delay. This represents £100 for each month of delay.
• b) apologise to Ms X for the delay in completing Y’s EHC Plan.

14. I consider the remedy offered by the Council is suitable and that it is taking steps to address the issues impacting delays. It is therefore unlikely investigation would achieve anything more for Ms X.

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Final decision

15. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because the Council has agreed to resolve part of the complaint by providing a suitable remedy. We will not investigate part of the complaint because it would be reasonable for Ms X to take her complaint to the Tribunal.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman