Surrey County Council (22 010 270)
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about delay in the Council finalising Mrs X’s daughter’s final Education, Health, and Care plan following an annual review. This is because the Council has agreed to resolve the complaint early by providing a proportionate remedy for the injustice caused by the likely faults.
The complaint
- Mrs X complains the Council delayed in finalising her daughter’s final Education, Health, and Care (EHC) plan following the annual review held in May 2022.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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 an injustice, we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- If we were to investigate, it is likely we would find fault causing Mrs X an injustice. This is because the Council should have issued the final EHC plan within 12 weeks of the annual review meeting, which was August 2022. However, the Council did not issue the final EHC plan until March 2023. This was a delay of around seven months.
- This delay will have caused Mrs X distress and frustration. The delay will also have frustrated Mrs X’s right of appeal as she could not appeal until the final EHC plan was issued.
- We therefore asked the Council to consider remedying the injustice caused by the delay by making a financial payment of £500. We are satisfied a remedy outside of the Ombudsman’s normal range is justified in the circumstances to account for the length of the delay.
Agreed action
- To its credit, the Council has agreed to resolve the complaint and will complete the above within four weeks of the date of the final decision statement.
Final decision
- We have upheld this complaint because the Council has agreed to resolve the complaint early by providing a proportionate remedy for the injustice caused by the likely faults.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman