Summary: We have upheld this complaint because the Council delayed arranging the education provision detailed in a child’s Education Health and Care Plan. The Council has agreed to resolve the complaint by offering to make a suitable payment to the complainant to remedy the injustice this caused.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complained that the Council delayed arranging the education provision detailed in her daughter Z’s Education Health and Care (EHC) Plan. Mrs X also complains about poor communication from the Council and poor complaint handling.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. 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)
3. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
4. 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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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. Mrs X’s daughter, Z was receiving the education detailed in her EHC Paln in the form of home tuition. In July the tuition stopped. The Council has since agreed a personal budget to be paid to Mrs X for an Education Otherwise Than At School (EOTAS) package.
8. In responding to Mrs X’s complaint, the Council accepted that there had been a delay in arranging provision, apologised and agreed to extend additional mentoring it had put in place until the end of the year.
9. If we were to investigate this complaint it is likely we would find fault. This is because the Council delayed arranging the education provision detailed in Z’s EHC Plan and whilst the Council has apologised and put in place additional monitoring this does not fully remedy Z’s missed education provision and the distress caused to Mrs X in the form of uncertainty over her daughter’s education.
10. I therefore asked the Council to write to Mrs X within one month to offer to make a payment to her of:
• £500 to remedy the period of missed education
• £100 to remedy the distress in the form of uncertainty.
11. To its credit, the Council agreed. The Council has already apologised so I did not suggest a further apology, and the Council had already agreed to undertake work on improving its delivery of EHC Plans on the Ombudsman’s recommendations on other cases, so I did not suggest any service improvements.
12. I will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint that the Council’s communications with her have been poor because this alone has not caused an injustice significant enough to warrant investigation. It is also not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures, if we are unable to deal with the substantive issue.

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Final decision

13. We have upheld Mrs X’s complaint. The Council has agreed to resolve the matter by providing a suitable remedy

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman