Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about delays in the Education Health and Care Plan process. This is because the Council has already apologised to Miss X and has now agreed to pay her £100 for the delay. We consider this an appropriate remedy and further investigation is therefore unlikely to achieve anything more.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains the Council failed to complete the Education, Health and Care (EHC) needs assessment process for her daughter, Y, in accordance with the statutory deadlines. Miss X requested an assessment on 9 July 2025 but the Council did not complete the process or issue Y’s final EHC Plan within the timescales set out in law.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word fault to refer to these. Service failure can happen when an organisation fails to provide a service as it should have done because of circumstances outside its control. We do not need to show any blame, intent, flawed policy or process, or bad faith by an organisation to say service failure (fault) has occurred. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1), as amended)
3. 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

4. I considered information provided by Miss X and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
6. 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

7. There are timescales for each stage of the EHC needs assessment process.  Councils must consider requests for assessments and decide if they will carry out an assessment within six weeks.  They then have a further 10 weeks to decide if they will issue an EHC Plan and if they do, they have a further four weeks to finalise it.  The whole process must not exceed 20 weeks. 
8. In this case the Council considered Miss X’s request for an assessment in August 2025 but decided it was not necessary. Miss X appealed against this decision and the Council agreed to carry out an assessment on 28 October 2025. We cannot consider any delay caused by Miss X’s appeal and I have therefore focused my attention on the time taken by the Council to complete the process after 28 October 2025.  
9. Once the Council decided to carry out an assessment it should have completed the process and told Miss X if it intended to issue Y an EHC Plan by 6 January 2026. If it decided to issue a Plan, it should have finalised this by 3 February 2026. But the Council took until 10 March 2026 to issue Y an EHC Plan.
10. The Council has accepted delay in completing Y’s assessment and deciding whether to issue her an EHC Plan and has apologised for this. It has also now agreed to pay Miss X £100 for the delay and will make this payment within four weeks of the date of this decision.
11. I consider the remedy agreed by the Council is suitable and it is therefore unlikely investigation would achieve anything more for Miss X.
12. I note Miss X has funded private animal-assisted therapy for Y but I cannot expect the Council to reimburse her for the cost. This is because the Council did not agree the therapy was needed and has not included it in Y’s EHC Plan. I appreciate the therapy may have improved Y’s attendance but there is no basis for me to say the Council must pay for it retrospectively. Any dispute over whether it is required in the future is a matter for the appeals process

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Final decision

13. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because the Council has agreed a suitable remedy for the injustice caused by its delay.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman