Summary: We cannot investigate Mrs X’s complaint about failings in an Education Health and Care Plan’s assessment as these are not separable from matters appealed to a Tribunal. And the delay in producing the Education Health and Care Plan is not significant enough to warrant an investigation.

The complaint

1. Mrs X says the Council provided inaccurate and misleading information during an Education Health and Care Plan (EHC Plan) assessment process. She says it failed to properly explain or document decision making, and promised documentation it later admitted did not exist. She says it also delayed in key steps.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)
3. 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 any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

6. Mrs X asked the Council to assess Y for an EHC Plan in November 2024. The Council refused. Mrs X says she was told this was because of missing information. Mrs X reapplied in December 2024. The Council carried out an EHC Plan needs assessment. It issued its final EHC Plan in June 2025. Mrs X was not happy with it. She appealed to the Tribunal the next month. The hearing is due by the end of September 2026.
7. We cannot investigate the same issues the Tribunal is covering. This is whether the EHC Plan meets Y’s needs. The main injustice caused by failings in the assessment process is the EHC Plan not meeting Y’s needs. This means the failings in the process are not separable from the Tribunal appeal and we have no power to investigate.
8. The Council has accepted it produced the EHC Plan outside of the Regulations timescales. Those allow 20 weeks. The delay in this case is not significant enough to justify our investigation.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because we cannot investigate issues which are not separable from a Tribunal appeal. And the delay in the EHC Plan process was not significant enough to justify us investigating.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman