The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about delay by the Council in issuing an Education Health and Care Plan ready for Mrs X’s child’s transfer to post-16 education. Although the Council has issued the Plan late, it includes the provision Mrs X wanted at a setting she is satisfied with. Investigating further would not lead to any worthwhile outcome.
The complaint
Mrs X said the Council failed to issue her child’s Education Health and Care (EHC) Plan for transfer to a post-16 placement by the 31 March deadline. She said it also failed to respond to her complaint about its actions.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide: further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B)) Under our information sharing agreement, we will share this decision with the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted).
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Since her original complaint to us, Mrs X has received a response from the Council, which I have seen. This confirmed the Council failed to meet the 31 March 2024 deadline to issue the EHC Plan for transfer and apologised for the failure. It also confirmed it had failed to respond to her original complaint, for which it also apologised. Both of these matters were fault by the Council.
Mrs X told me the Council has recently issued the Final EHC Plan. She confirmed it contained the provision she was seeking for September 2024 in a college setting she found suitable. In light of this, further work by us would be unlikely to lead to a different or worthwhile outcome.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because the Council’s recent actions mean our further involvement would be unlikely to lead to a different or worthwhile outcome.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman