The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We upheld Mr X’s complaint about delays in the annual review for his child’s Education, Health and Care Plan in 2025. The Council agreed to apologise and pay Mr X £200. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about delay in the Education, Health and Care annual review process in 2024 because the complaint is late.
The complaint
Mr X complained about delays in the Education, Health and Care annual review process regarding his child in both 2024 and 2025.
Mr X said the matter caused him frustration and uncertainty.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended) 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).
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 and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
EHC annual review 2024 Mr X complained the Council failed to send a decision letter (whether to amend/ maintain/ cease Y’s EHC Plan) following an EHC annual review in February 2024. In its complaint response, the Council apologised for failing to send Mr X a decision letter.
Mr X complained to the Ombudsman in late June 2025. The issues complained about happened more than 12 months before this time. This part of the complaint is therefore late. The law says we cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. I have seen no good reasons Mr X could not have complained sooner, and so we will not investigate this complaint.
EHC annual review 2025 Mr X complained about delay in the EHC annual review process in 2025.
If we investigated this complaint, we would likely find fault because: an EHC annual review meeting took place in early February 2025; the Council sent Mr X a decision to amend notice in early March 2025 (in line with statutory timescales); however, the Council should have issued the final EHC Plan within 12 weeks of the review meeting; by early May 2025. The Council did not amend the EHC Plan until mid-August 2025. This was a delay of approximately 15.5 weeks.
We therefore asked the Council to consider remedying the injustice caused to Mr X by the delay.
Agreed action
The Council agreed to: write to Mr X and apologise for the frustration and uncertainty caused by the delay in updating the EHC Plan following the EHC annual review in 2025; and pay Mr X £200 to acknowledge the frustration and uncertainty caused by the delay in the EHC process in 2025.
The Council agreed to complete the above actions within one month of this decision.
Final decision
We upheld part of this complaint. The Council agreed to resolve the complaint early by providing a proportionate remedy for the injustice caused to Mr X. We did not investigate part of the complaint because it is late.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman