Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about delays in issuing an Education Health and Care Plan because we are unlikely to achieve significantly more than the Council has already offered. We cannot investigate issues connected to a Tribunal appeal.

The complaint

1. Ms X says the Council delayed in issuing an Education Health and Care Plan (EHC Plan) and has failed to meet B’s educational needs.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The First-tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability) considers appeals against council decisions about special educational needs. We refer to it as the SEND Tribunal in this decision statement.
3. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

6. B has extra needs. Ms X requested an EHC Plan assessment in June 2023 and the Council agreed to assess for this in July 2023. It produced its final EHC Plan in August 2024. This is outside the EHC Plan regulations 20 week timescale. Ms X appealed the EHC Plan content to the Tribunal.
7. Ms X complained to the Council in February 2024. It replied in March 2024. It accepted it had failed to meet the timescales. It explained it had problems with sourcing and contracting the educational psychologists required for every EHC Plan. In October 2024 the Council says it paid Ms X £1000 for the delays.

Analysis

8. We cannot investigate if the EHC Plan meets B’s needs as Ms X has appealed to the Tribunal. This includes that we cannot investigate if the current education offer meets B’s needs as this is not separable from the Tribunal appeal issues.
9. The Council has previously set out to us its action plan to deal with the problems it has with appointing educational psychologists.
10. The Council’s £1000 payment is in line with the recommendations we make for delayed appeal rights caused by late EHC Plans. We will be unlikely to achieve a significantly different outcome.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because we cannot investigate issues involved in a Tribunal and we are unlikely to achieve a significantly different outcome for the delay in issuing an EHC Plan.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman