Summary: There was excessive delay by the Council in completing an Education, Health and Care needs assessment and in issuing a final Plan. This caused distress, frustration and uncertainty. The Council will now issue the Plan and will make a financial payment to acknowledge the injustice caused.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains about significant delay in her child, Y’s, Education, Health and Care (EHC) needs assessment, and that the Council has failed to issue a final Plan within statutory timescales.
2. Ms X complains the Council has accepted fault but offered no remedy for the period support within an EHC Plan has been missed or given any commitment as to when the final Plan will be issued.
3. Ms X says these delays caused stress, anxiety and uncertainty, and led to a loss of education for Y.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. If there has been fault which has caused significant injustice, or that could cause injustice to others in the future we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
5. If we are satisfied with an organisation’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(1), as amended)

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What I have investigated

6. I have investigated delay from Summer 2025 when the EHC needs assessment request was agreed, to date. We have investigated a complaint about delay before the needs assessment process began in a separate investigation and Ms X has received a remedy for this period.

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How I considered this complaint

7. I considered evidence provided by Ms X and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
8. Ms X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments before making a final decision.
9. 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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What I found

Relevant law and guidance

10. A child or young person with special educational needs may have an Education, Health and Care (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. 
11. Statutory guidance ‘Special educational needs and disability code of practice: 0 to 25 years’ (‘the Code’) sets out the process for carrying out EHC assessments and producing EHC Plans. The guidance is based on the Children and Families Act 2014 and the SEN Regulations 2014. It says the following: 

• Where the council receives a request for an EHC needs assessment it must decide whether to agree to the assessment and send its decision to the parent of the child or the young person within 6 weeks. 
• The process of assessing needs and developing EHC Plans “must be carried out in a timely manner”. Steps must be completed as soon as practicable. 
• If the council goes on to carry out an assessment, it must decide whether to issue an EHC Plan or refuse to issue a Plan within 16 weeks.
• If the council goes on to issue an EHC Plan, the whole process from the point when an assessment is requested until the final EHC Plan is issued must take no more than 20 weeks (unless certain specific circumstances apply).  

12. Section 3 of the Mental Health Act 1983 (the MHA) allows people to be detained in hospital for treatment necessary for their health, safety or for the protection of other people. Section 117 (s117) of the MHA imposes a duty on health and social services to provide free aftercare services to patients who have been detained under section 3 of the MHA.
13. The Mental Health Act 1983: Code of Practice is statutory guidance and says that: “Aftercare services mean services which have the purposes of meeting a need arising from or related to the patient’s mental disorder and reducing the risk of a deterioration of the patient’s mental condition’. The Code also states that aftercare should aim to support people “in regaining or enhancing their skills, or learning new skills, in order to cope with life outside hospital” (Section 33.5 of the Code).

What happened

14. Y was an inpatient under the MHA when professionals recommended Y be assessed for an EHC Plan.
15. Under s.117, Y has accessed an alternative provision education centre, but Ms X says this is on a limited basis and if Y had an EHC Plan, they would be receiving at least one extra day per week of education.
16. The Council initially refused to assess Y for an EHC Plan, but this decision was reversed in July 2025. This would equate to week six in the statutory twenty-week process. The final EHC Plan should have been issued by the end of October 2025. No Plan has yet been issued by the Council.
17. The Council considered the complaint under its stage one complaint process in early 2026 and found:
• There were significant periods when the Council provided no update to Ms X despite her contacting the service.
• There was a delay in obtaining educational psychology (EP) advice, but the educational psychologist had now seen Y and the advice was awaited.
• The Council failed to communicate with Ms X about what professional advice it had sought and received.
18. The case went to the Council’s panel after EP advice was received in early February. The Council told Ms X in late March it would issue an EHC Plan. Ms X says she did not hear anything further despite chasing the Council.
19. The Council considered the ongoing delay under its stage two complaint procedure in June 2026. It found continued fault and that, due to staff changes, no special educational needs officer was currently allocated to Y’s case. The Council accepted further delay and fault, said it is seeking to recruit more staff, and apologised, but gave no indication when a new officer would be allocated or a Plan issued.
20. Ms X says Y is receiving some alternative provision under s.117 aftercare, but this is limited because Y is over compulsory school age and needs the EHC Plan to provide a legal entitlement to education and funding. Ms X says the EP report identified Y has missed out on several years of education and made recommendations for Y’s education going forward, but this report cannot be implemented until an EHC Plan is in place.

Analysis

21. The Council has accepted fault and delay but has provided no remedy other than an apology and the fault continues.
22. While the Ombudsman acknowledges national problems with EP capacity and that many councils are under pressure to meet demand for EHC Plans, the delay in this case is excessive. The final Plan was due over eight months ago, that is almost a whole school year lost during which Ms X and Y have had the uncertainty of what extra provision may be available when the EHC Plan is issued. This injustice follows a difficult period of several years when Y was unwell and missed out on formal education and when the Ombudsman has upheld other complaints against the Council.
23. The Council could have sought to provide a remedy via its own complaint process rather than requiring Ms X to approach the Ombudsman, adding to her time and trouble. The Ombudsman publishes Guidance on Remedies which sets out the approach we are likely to take to guide councils as to what a suitable remedy might be when a young person misses educational opportunities.
24. The Council has already agreed to provide the Ombudsman with an update around its recruitment of staff and explain what action it is taking currently to reduce delays in EHC Plan annual reviews, in response to another similar complaint. I do not therefore need to repeat the same recommendations.

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Agreed action

25. The Council will issue a draft Plan without further delay to allow for consultations before the summer holidays, with a final Plan in place no later than 31 August 2026 in time for the next academic year.
26. Within one month of my final decision, the Council will pay Y (or Ms X on his behalf) £800 for the delay up to the end of June 2026 and then £100 for each month of additional delay until a final EHC Plan is issued, up to a maximum of six months after my final decision.
27. When the final EHC Plan is issued the Council will consider whether a further financial payment is appropriate to remedy any education provision that has been missed between November 2025, when the final Plan should have been in place, and the date it was issued.
28. The Council will provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Decision

29. I find fault causing injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman