Summary: Miss X complains the council has failed to complete a reassessment of her son Y's, Education, Health and Care Plan and issue a new Education, Health and Care Plan within statutory timescales. Miss X says Y has missed provision due to his Education, Health and Care plan not meeting his needs. Miss X also says the Council failed to respond to her complaint within the timescale in its policy. Miss X says this has caused her and her family distress. We have found fault in the actions of the Council for failing to issue Y’s Education, Health and Care Plan within statutory timescales and for failing to respond to Miss X’s complaint in line with its policy. We recommend the Council issues an apology, pays Miss X a financial payment and completes service improvements.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains the council has failed to complete reassessment of her son Y's, Education, Health and Care Plan and issue a new EHC Plan within statutory timescales. Miss X says Y has missed provision due to his EHC plan not meeting his needs. Miss X also says the Council failed to respond to her complaint within the timescale in its policy.
2. Miss X says this has caused her and her family distress.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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)
4. 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(i), as amended)
5. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone has a right of appeal, reference or review to a tribunal about the same matter. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to use this right. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)
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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What I have and have not investigated

7. I have not investigated Miss X’s complaint about Y’s EHC Plan not meeting his needs and him therefore missing provision. This is because Miss X could have appealed the content of Y’s plan to the tribunal if she was unhappy with it.
8. I have investigated Miss X’s complaint about the delay in completing reassessment of her son Y's, EHC Plan and issue a new EHC Plan within statutory timescales.
9. I have also investigated Miss X’s complaint about the Council’s complaints handling.

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How I considered this complaint

10. I have considered the information provided by Miss X and have discussed the complaint with her over the telephone.
11. I have considered the information provided by the Council in response to my enquiries.
12. Both Miss X and the Council were invited to provide comments on my draft decision. Any comments received have been considered before a final decision was issued.

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What I found

13. A child with special educational needs may have an Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan. This 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 education or name a different school. Only the SEND Tribunal can do this.
14. The council must decide whether to conduct a reassessment of a child or young person’s EHC Plan if this is requested by the child’s parent, the young person or their educational placement. The council may also decide to complete a reassessment if it thinks one is necessary.
15. The council can refuse a request for a reassessment if less than six months have passed since a previous EHC needs assessment. It can also refuse a request if it does not think it is necessary, for example because it does not feel a child or young person’s needs have changed significantly.
16. The council must tell the child’s parent or the young person whether it will complete an EHC needs reassessment within 15 calendar days of receiving the request. If the decision is not to reassess, the council must also provide information about the right to appeal that decision to the tribunal.
17. If the council agrees to an EHC needs reassessment, it has 14 weeks to issue the final EHC Plan from the date it agreed to reassess to the date it issues the final amended EHC Plan.

Councils’ complaint procedure

18. The Councils complaint procedure says it will acknowledge complaints within three working days and then issue a full response within 10 working days or confirm if it cannot do this.

What happened

19. The Council issued an EHC Plan for Y in July 2022.
20. The Council completed a review and issued draft EHC Plans in May, August and November 2023.
21. Miss X asked for a re-assessment of Y’s EHC Plan in November 2023. The panel agreed this in mid-December 2023.
22. The Council issued a final amended EHC Plan in late December 2023 following the previous review and emailed a copy to Miss X saying this was the final plan while it completed the re-assessment.
23. The Council received an Educational Psychologist’s (EP) report in January 2024. Miss X told the Council she was unhappy with the report and felt that it had not completed a full assessment.
24. The Council raised Miss X’s concerns with the EP agency and were told that it had completed a full assessment.
25. The Council issued a draft plan in early February 2024. Miss X advised health services were involved with Y and so the Council had to get further information.
26. Miss X again raised issues with the Council about the EP report in early February and said she felt the school EP was better placed to complete the assessment.
27. Miss X chased the Council for an update in mid-February 2024.
28. The Council contacted the school EP in late-February 2024 and Miss X again raised concerns with the EP report. Miss X said she had not received parent/child views forms to fill in.
29. Miss X raised further concerns with the Council about the EP report in early April 2024 and noted sections she believed it should change.
30. Miss X raised a complaint with the Council in mid-April and said Y was not receiving education as his EHC Plan did not meet his needs. Miss X also complained the Council had failed to complete the re-assessment requested in December 2023.
31. The Council emailed Miss X in mid-April 2024 to confirm again the EP had completed a full assessment. The Council received an amended EP report taking into account Miss X’s comments a few days later.
32. The Council issued a response to Miss X’s complaint in mid-May 2024 and said Y’s EHC Plan was reviewed an amended in December 2023. Miss X then requested a reassessment which the Council agreed in December 2023, and it issued a draft plan in February 2024. The Council said it would hold a Team Around Young Person meeting in May to discuss how to go forward.
33. Miss X asked the Council to progress her complaint to stage two in mid-May 2024. Miss X said the Council had not responded to her complaint within the correct timescales.
34. The Council held a The Team Around Young Person meeting in late May 2024 and the Council also received a further amended EP report.
35. Miss X chased the Council for a further draft EHC Plan in early June 2024.
36. The Council issued a stage two complaint response in mid-June 2024 and said Y’s EHC Plan was currently being amended. The Council said it was working with Miss X to ensure the new plan reflected his needs. The Council also apologised for the delay in issuing its stage one response.
37. Miss X contacted the Council in early July 2024 to ask when it would issue the new draft EHC Plan. Miss X said it had been seven weeks since the Team Around Young Person meeting took place.
38. The Council sent an amended draft plan to Miss X in late July 2024.
39. Miss X requested an EHC Plan health check in August 2024.
40. The Council issued a further amended draft plan in mid-September 2024 and a final plan in October 2024.

Analysis

41. The Council issued Y’s EHC Plan in July 2022. A review took place, and the Council issued a draft plan in May 2023. Miss X did not agree with the draft plan and the Council worked with her to amend the plan until December 2023.
42. The Council did not issue a final plan until mid-December 2023. There is some fault here as the Council failed to issue a final plan after amendments were made to the original plan issued in July 2022. However, the Council did not issue the final plan within timescales because it was working with Miss X to amend it.
43. Miss X asked for a re-assessment of Y’s EHC Plan, and the Council agreed to this in mid-December 2023. The Council should have completed the re-assessment and issued a new EHC Plan within 14 weeks.
44. The Council issued a draft plan within eight weeks of it accepting to complete the re-assessment. However, Miss X was unhappy with the content of the draft plan and EP report, so the Council tried to work with her to draft a plan she was happy with.
45. The Council issued several draft plans following Miss X asking for amendments but did not issue a final plan until October 2024.
46. There is a delay of around seven months in the Council issuing a final plan following the re-assessment. This is fault.
47. Miss X has been caused distress and frustration by the delay in issuing Y’s final EHC Plan. Miss X has also been denied her appeal rights as the Council did not issue a final plan until recently. This again would have caused Miss X distress and frustration.
48. I do accept the Council has issued several draft plans and has been working with Miss X to try to resolve any issues she had with the plan during the re-assessment. The Council did also issue a draft plan within the 14-week timeframe required for a final plan following a re-assessment. However, the Council should have issued a final plan within the statutory timeframes which would have allowed Miss X to appeal if she was unhappy.
49. Miss X was unhappy with the EP report and was unhappy with how the Council dealt with this. However, following Miss X raising issues with the EP report the Council contacted the EP provider and raised the issues. The Council continued to communicate with the EP about the issues Miss X was unhappy with when she raised them. I cannot see there is any fault in the way in which the Council dealt with the EP report, or any issues raised about it.
50. Miss X raised her complaint with the Council in mid-April 2024. The Council’s website says it will respond to complaints within 10 working days or explain why it cannot do so. Miss X did not receive a response to her complaint until mid-May which is outside the timeframe for the Council to respond.
51. The Council has acknowledged it did not respond to Miss X’s complaint within the timeframe noted in its policy and has apologised for this. This is a suitable way to resolve the issue.

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Agreed action

52. Within one month of any final decision the Council should:

• Write to Miss X to apologise for the faults identified.
• Pay Miss X £350 to acknowledge the distress and frustration caused to her
• Remind officers in writing of the importance of issuing EHC Plans in line with the statutory timescales.

53. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Final decision

54. I have found fault in the actions of the Council for failing to issue Y’s EHC Plan within statutory timescales and failing to respond to Miss X’s complaint in line with its policy.

Investigator’s final decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman