Summary: The Council was not at fault for cancelling the planned annual review of child Y’s Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan when their family moved to a different council area. The Council was also not at fault for failing to deliver direct payments for child Y’s agreed social care support. I have ended my investigation into the other aspects of Mrs X’s complaint.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complained that:
1. Following a safeguarding incident, her child, Y, was unable to attend school from December 2023 onwards. The Council did not offer alternative provision until February 2025 and, when it did so, it was unsuitable and Y was unable to access it;
2. The Council delayed in issuing a final EHC Plan for Y until July 2024 and, when it did so, it did not secure the educational, social care or therapeutic provision included in that Plan; and
3. The Council cancelled the annual review of Y’s EHC Plan in July 2025 before responsibility had been transferred to a second Council and delayed the progress of Mrs X’s Tribunal appeal by failing to notify the second Council that an appeal was ongoing.
2. Mrs X made a separate complaint that, in March 2024, the Council refused to provide a supermarket voucher in lieu of Y’s entitlement to free school meals when they were unable to attend school;
3. Mrs X said the Council’s failings have caused Y years of missed education and have impacted their physical, mental and emotional wellbeing. She wants the Council to apologise, offer a suitable financial remedy for the injustice caused by its faults, and make changes to its services to prevent a recurrence.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
5. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating.
6. It is our decision whether to start, and when to end an investigation into something the law allows us to investigate. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 24A(6) and 34B(8), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

7. I considered evidence provided by Mrs X and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance. I discussed Mrs X’s complaint with her on the telephone.
8. Mrs 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

Law, policy and guidance

SEND Tribunal

9. 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.

EHC Plan 

10. A child or young person with special educational needs 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. 

Appeal rights

11. There is a right of appeal to the Tribunal against a council’s description of a child or young person’s Special Educational Needs (SEN – section B), the special educational provision specified (section F), the school or placement or that no school or other placement is specified in their EHC Plan (section I), and any amendments to these elements of an EHC Plan.

Maintaining and reviewing the EHC Plan

12. The council has a duty to make sure the child or young person receives the special educational provision set out in section F of an EHC Plan (Section 42 Children and Families Act).

Reviewing EHC Plans

13. The council must arrange for the EHC Plan to be reviewed at least once a year to make sure it is up to date. The annual review begins with consulting the child’s parents or the young person and the educational placement. A review meeting must then take place. Following the review meeting the council must issue a decision to either amend, maintain or cease to maintain the EHC Plan.

Transfer of EHC Plan between councils 

14. Where a child or young person moves to another council, the ‘old’ council must transfer the EHC Plan to the ‘new’ council. The old council must transfer the EHC Plan on the day of the move or within 15 working days of becoming aware of the move. The new council must maintain the plan from the date of the transfer. The new council must review the EHC Plan either within 12 months of it last being reviewed or three months of the date of the transfer, whichever is the later date. (Section 15 Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014, “the Regulations”)  

Section 19 duty

15. 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.

Direct Payments for children’s social care

Parents/carers of disabled children can ask for direct payments (DPs) to meet the social care needs of the child. The council must carry out an assessment and DPs must be sufficient to meet the child’s assessed needs. DPs must be used by the parent/carer to meet the child’s needs as determined by the council. They do not affect any benefit entitlement. Persons receiving DPs must sign a DP agreement and keep and submit accounts.

Parent Carers

17. The Children Act 1989 (Schedule 2 paragraph 96)(1)(c)) and Breaks for Carers of Disabled Children Regulations 2011 requires councils to provide a range of services designed to assist family carers of disabled children to continue to provide care, or to do so more effectively, by giving them breaks from caring. These services must include a range of daytime care, overnight care and leisure activities. This range of services must be set out in a ‘short breaks statement’ and include details of any eligibility criteria.
18. The Children Act 1989 (as amended by the Children and Families Act 2014) places specific duties on councils to assess the needs of carers with parental responsibility for disabled children as well as young carers. Councils have an obligation to assess parent carers on the ‘appearance of need’ (Children Act 1989, section 17ZD/E), or if an assessment is requested by the parent, and to provide a written copy of the assessment to the parent carer.

What happened

2023

19. Y has special educational needs and has an EHC Plan. A safeguarding incident occurred at their school in late November 2023. Mrs X said that it was not safe for Y to return to school after that date, so they did not attend from December 2023.
20. Also in November, the Council approved a package of social care support for Y including 10 days per year at a local short breaks provider, three family fun days per year, and DPs for four hours of support per week.
21. In December, the Council sent Mrs X information about DPs. The Council asked her to return the requested information so it could create a legal agreement covering the use of the DPs.

2024

22. In March 2024, Mrs X complained to the Council that, as Y was entitled to free school meals, the Council should issue her with supermarket vouchers in lieu of meals for the period that Y was unable to attend school. The Council responded to this complaint in July 2024, stating that the Council could only agree to such an arrangement “when a child cannot be educated in a setting, and this is not the case with [Y]”.
23. The Council carried out a reassessment of Y’s SEN and issued a final EHC Plan for them in mid-July 2024. This Plan named the school that Mrs X had said was her preference. It included one-to-one support for Y, and a range of therapeutic provision (physiotherapy, occupational therapy – OT, and speech and language therapy – SALT). It also included the social care provision that had been agreed in November 2023.
24. Mrs X told me that the school named as the placement in the Plan could not, in the event, meet Y’s needs. She also considered that, given the trauma Y had experienced at their previous school, they needed Education Otherwise Than at School (EOTAS). And so, in September 2024, she submitted an appeal to the SEND Tribunal against sections B, F and I.
25. In early October 2024, Mrs X contacted the Council to let them know she had set up separate bank accounts for Y and their sibling to receive DPs from the Council.
26. The Council created the legal agreement for the DPs. It posted this to Mrs X for signature in early November.
27. Also in November 2024, the Council agreed to provide Y with EOTAS.

2025

28. In February 2025, the Council arranged some online learning for Y. Mrs X said this provision did not meet Y’s needs. She continued to pursue her appeal.
29. Also in February 2025, the Council issued a final (amended) Plan for Y, naming an Additionally Resourced Provision as the setting for Y’s secondary education from September 2025. Mrs X did not want Y to start secondary school until September 2026. She continued to pursue her appeal.
30. In early April 2025, Mrs X emailed the Council to say she had not received the legal agreement for signature. In early May, the Council contacted her to check whether, given that the documentation had not been returned in the preceding 18 months, the DPs were still needed. Mrs X reiterated that she had not received the legal agreement for signature. In mid-May, the Council sent it again, this time via email as well as posting it.
31. Mrs X and her family moved to a new council area in mid-June 2025. The Council sent Y’s EHC Plan documentation to the new council in early July and cancelled the annual review meeting that had been arranged for mid-July.
32. Mrs X complained to the Council as set out at paragraph one. Mrs X also complained the Council had failed to deliver direct payments for Y’s agreed social care support, meaning Y had not been able to access that provision before moving in June 2025. She said the Council had:
• Told her to open separate bank accounts for Y and their sibling, then told her the accounts weren’t acceptable because they were linked to her personal account or did not have a zero balance;
• Required her to provide written confirmation that all staff members of the provisions Mrs X had identified had completed an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check; and
• Given her conflicting information: the DP team said it had everything it needed, but the Payments team said they would send paper forms, which did not arrive.
33. The Council responded at stage one of its complaints procedure in October 2025. It said:
• It had been a “parental decision” that Y did not attend school after November 2023.
• The school the Council had named in the July 2024 EHC Plan was in line with Mrs X’s expressed preference.
• The Council had offered EOTAS in November 2024, in response to Mrs X’s appeal, and had made a referral to the SEND Advisory Teacher Service in January 2025.
• The Council could not deliver the OT and SALT included in Y’s EHC Plan between July and November 2024 as Y had not attended the school placement where the therapies should have been delivered.
• Following the Council’s agreement to name EOTAS in November 2024, it had arranged five OT sessions, of which Y had attended only one.
• The Council acknowledged that it had not arranged SALT provision after November 2024, and that it had been responsible for “some delays and missed provision between November 2024 and June 2025”. It offered Mrs X £500 in recognition of these failings.
• It had scheduled Y’s annual review meeting for mid-July but had cancelled this when it had been informed that the family had moved to a new council area. It had then transferred Y’s records to the new council, which took over responsibility for administering and funding Y’s EHC Plan, and arranging their annual review.
34. Mrs X complained further. The Council responded in early November that its stage one response had fully addressed the issues she had raised and that her complaint did not need to be considered at stage two of its complaints procedure.
35. Mrs X escalated her complaint to the Ombudsman in November 2025, except her complaint about free school meals, that she raised with the Ombudsman in August 2026.
36. The Tribunal made its ruling in Y’s case in June 2026.

My findings

Late complaints

37. 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)
38. Mrs X complained to the Ombudsman in November 2025, about matters dating from December 2023. The period before November 2024 is late. I have not seen good reasons why Mrs X could not have complained to us sooner and so I have not investigated matters before November 2024.
39. For the same reason, I will not investigate the separate complaint Mrs X made to the Council in March 2024 regarding Y’s free school meals entitlement, that she brought to the Ombudsman in August 2026.

Y’s education between July 2024 and November 2025

40. 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)
41. The courts have established that if someone has appealed to the Tribunal, the law says we cannot investigate any matter which was part of, was connected to, or could have been part of, the appeal to the Tribunal. (R (on application of Milburn) v Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman [2023] EWCA Civ 207)
42. This means that if a child or young person is not attending school, and we decide the reason for non-attendance is linked to, or is a consequence of, a parent or young person’s disagreement about the special educational provision or the educational placement in the EHC Plan, we cannot investigate a lack of special educational provision, or alternative educational provision.
43. The period we cannot investigate starts from the date the appealable decision is made and given to the parents or young person. If the parent or young person goes on to appeal then the period that we cannot investigate ends when the Tribunal comes to its decision, or if the appeal is withdrawn or conceded.
44. Mrs X appealed the content of the final EHC Plan that the Council issued for Y in July 2024. Because that appeal was about her disagreement with the special educational provision and the educational placement named in that Plan, we cannot investigate Mrs X’s complaints about a loss of special educational provision and alternative provision, between the date the appeal right arose in July 2024 until June 2026, when the Tribunal made its decision.
45. Mrs X said it was “unfair that [Y] was left without appropriate education for so long and then the Tribunal case took from October 2024 to July 2026 to get a finalised EHC P[lan]”. 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). 

Transfer between Council areas in June 2025

46. As set out at paragraph 15, where a child or young person moves to another council, the ‘old’ council must transfer the EHC Plan to the ‘new’ council. The new council then takes over responsibility for the provision in the EHC Plan and assumes the responsibility for carrying out the annual review. The Council was therefore not at fault for cancelling the annual review as, following the transfer, it became the responsibility of the new council.
47. Mrs X was unhappy the Council did not tell the new council there was an appeal to the Tribunal ongoing. There is no requirement in the Regulations or Code of Practice for an ‘old’ council to notify a ‘new’ one about an ongoing Tribunal appeal. As the person appealing, it was Mrs X’s responsibility to make the new council aware of the appeal. The Council was not at fault.

Failure to deliver direct payments for social care support

48. The Council was not at fault in requiring all care support workers who work with children to go through an enhanced DBS check. The Council provided information about that requirement to Mrs X when it first approved DPs and so was also not at fault in communicating with her.
49. The Council was not at fault in requiring Mrs X to create separate, empty, bank accounts purely for the purpose of receiving direct payments for each of her children with assessed social care needs. The Council has a responsibility to ensure that its funding is spent responsibly and for their specified purpose, which the empty bank accounts are required for.
50. I have seen no evidence Mrs X provided confirmation of these accounts to the Council before October 2024. And so, the Council was not at fault in that it did not send her the legal agreement for signature until November 2024.
51. When Mrs X did not receive the legal agreement through the post, I have seen no evidence that she chased the matter up with the Council until early April 2025. The Council was not at fault in taking no action in the meantime. And, given the passage of time, the Council was not at fault for checking if Y still needed DPs before sending the legal agreement to Mrs X again in May 2025.

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Decision

52. The Council was not at fault for cancelling Y’s annual review when the family moved to a different Council area, or in failing to deliver direct payments for Y’s agreed social care support. I have ended my investigation into the other matters Mrs X complained about.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman