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 £200 for the delay. We consider this an appropriate remedy and further investigation is therefore unlikely to achieve anything more.

The complaint

1. Miss X has previously complained to us about the Council’s failure to complete the Education, Health and Care (EHC) needs assessment process for her son, Y, in accordance with the statutory deadlines. The Council agreed a remedy for this issue but Miss X complains the delay has continued past the period remedied.

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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. 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.
8. The Council has previously agreed a remedy for its delay until 15 July 2026 but it did not issue Y’s final EHC Plan until 17 September 2026. The additional delay is therefore two months. 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

9. The Council has agreed to the following actions to remedy Miss X’s complaint:
10. Apologise to Miss X for the continued delay in the EHC Plan process;
11. Pay Miss X £200 for the additional delay.
12. The Council should make this payment within four weeks of the date of this decision.
13. 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

14. 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