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 agreed to apologise to Miss X and pay her £100 per month 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 son, Y, in accordance with the statutory deadlines. Miss X requested an assessment on 2 July 2025 but the Council took until 20 March 2026 to issue Y’s final EHC Plan.

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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. Miss X says she requested an assessment earlier in 2025 but the Council has clarified it refused her initial request. The decision carried a right of appeal which it would have been reasonable for Miss X to use and we cannot therefore consider any delay which resulted from it. I have therefore focused my attention on the time taken to complete the process following Miss X’s further application on 2 July 2025.
8. The Council must carry out needs assessments and give notice of its decision about whether to issue an EHC Plan within 16 weeks from the date of the request for an assessment. If it decides to issue an EHC Plan it must do so within 20 weeks. It should therefore have told Miss X if it intended to issue Y an EHC Plan by 22 October 2025 and, if it decided to issue a Plan, it should have finalised this by 19 November 2025. However, the Council took until 20 March 2026 to complete the process and issue Y’s EHC Plan.
9. The Council has accepted delay and has explained that a lack of Educational Psychologists has contributed to it. The delay amounts to service failure.
10. We are satisfied the Council is taking action to deal with the issues caused by a lack of Educational Psychologists. In response to our findings in a previous case it sent us an action plan of its service improvements.
11. We do however accept the Council’s delays caused Miss X and Y frustration and uncertainty and that this injustice remains unremedied. We have therefore invited the Council to provide a remedy to Miss X and Y and the Council, to its credit, has agreed to our proposal.

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Agreed actions

12. The Council has agreed to the following actions to remedy Miss X’s complaint:
13. Apologise to Miss X for the delay in the EHC Plan process;
14. Pay Miss X £100 for each month of delay; a total of £400.
15. The Council will make this payment within four weeks of today’s date.
16. I consider the remedy agreed by the Council is suitable and that it is taking steps to address the issue at the heart of this complaint. It is therefore unlikely investigation would achieve anything more for Miss X.

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Final decision

17. 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