Summary: Mr X complained the Council delayed carrying out an EHCP (education, health and care plan) assessment for his daughter Y. He complains this caused distress and delayed his appeal rights. The Council is at fault for failing to keep to statutory deadlines and delaying the completion of Y’s EHC Plan assessment. This caused an injustice to Mr X and Y. The Council has agreed to provide Mr X with an apology and a £800 financial award to be used for Y’s educational benefit.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained the Council delayed completing an EHC Plan assessment for his child Y.
2. He complained this caused him stress and inconvenience whilst negatively impacting Y's educational development.

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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)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I made enquiries of the Council and considered the information it provided. This included the complaint correspondence shared between it and Mr X, the Council's chronology and Y's EHC Plan.
6. I wrote to the Council and Mr X with the details of the draft decision. I considered Mr X's comments before I wrote the final draft.

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Law

7. Children with special educational needs (SEN) may need an Education, Health and Care Plan.
8. Councils are responsible for carrying out assessments. The timescale for assessment for an EHC Plan is a maximum of 20 weeks.
9. Councils must ensure a child's parents are fully included in the assessment from the start and made aware of opportunities to offer views and information.

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What I found

10. Y is secondary school aged. In 2020 she began experiencing significant anxiety when attending school and was absent for most of that school year. She eventually stopped attending school due to the impact it was having on her mental health.
11. On 24 June 2021 the Council received a request for Y to be assessed for an EHC Plan. The Council confirmed it would carry it out the assessment on 3 August 2021.
12. In the following weeks, Mr X submitted comments for inclusion in the EHC Plan and the Council began collating advice and information from Y’s school and its social care department. The Council requested input from an educational psychologist (EP) by 14 September 2021, but the information did not arrive. Mr X contacted the Council several times to ask about the process and discuss the delay.
13. On 18 October 2021, Mr X formally complained that the Council had failed to complete Y’s assessment within the statutory timescales.
14. The Council responded at Stage 1 of its complaints process on 18 November 2021. The Council acknowledged it had failed to meet the 20-week timescale to complete the assessment and explained it was still waiting for the EP report. The Council apologised for the delay and invited Mr X to contact the Council again if he remained unhappy.
15. Mr X complained again to the Council on 21 November 2021. He was unhappy with the Council’s failure to provide a timescale for completion of Y’s EHC needs assessment. He explained Y was unable to attend school and asked the Council to confirm when it would complete the assessment. He also asked other questions about the Council’s failure to communicate with him.
16. The Council responded at Stage 2 on 20 December 2021. The Council again upheld the complaint and acknowledged the lack of communication. The Council could not give Mr X a timescale for completion of the assessment due to a national shortage of EP’s.
17. The Council received the EP report on 26 April 2022 and contacted Mr X on 10 June 2022 to confirm it would complete the assessment and issue Y’s EHC Plan.
18. The Council produced Y’s EHC Plan on 16 June 2022. The Plan stated that Y should receive amongst other things:
• a 1-1 keyworker to support her with her missed learning;
• reasonable adjustments to enable Y to feel comfortable in the classroom environment; and
• weekly emotional literacy intervention.
19. Mr X brought his complaint to the Ombudsman as he remained unhappy with the delay.
20. In response to the Ombudsman’s enquiries the Council confirmed it has experienced a significant increase in demand for EHC needs assessments in the last several years. The Council plans to tackle the backlog this has created by hiring more staff and changing its case allocation practices. The Council has also implemented a communications strategy to ensure families are kept updated when there is likely to be a delay in meeting the 20-week deadline for a needs assessment.
21. Y’s school has confirmed that whilst it was waiting for Y’s EHC Plan to be finalised, she was accessing support from a mentor and a local mental health service.

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Findings

22. Following the Council's decision to assess Y for an EHC Plan, the statutory guidance required the Council to complete the assessment within a maximum of 20 weeks. The Council took 43 weeks to complete the assessment. This is fault. Due to the fault Mr X had to chase the Council for updates and experienced stress and frustration. Y lost out on educational provision she was entitled to. The Council should take steps to address the injustice Mr X and Y have suffered.
23. The statutory guidance requires the Council to include parents in the assessment process. I can see that most of the communication between Mr X and the Council was initiated by Mr X. The Council did not provide effective responses to Mr X's questions regarding the delay and failed to keep Mr X updated. I can imagine this likely led to a further breakdown in trust between Mr X and the Council. The Council has advised it has put strategies in place to ensure that it communicates with parents in future. These are reasonable actions for the Council to take.

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Agreed action

24. Within one month of the date of the final decision the Council has agreed to provide Mr X with an apology and an £800 financial award to be used for Y's educational benefit.

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Final decision

25. There was fault on the Council's part when it delayed completing Y's assessment. I have made recommendations for how the Council should remedy the injustice caused to Mr X and Y and the Council has agreed to them. I have completed the investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman