Ombudsman investigation finds delays by council in nearly eight out of ten EHCPs

The Ombudsman was initially asked to investigate a father’s complaint after the council took 72 weeks to produce his child’s EHC Plan. Under statutory guidance, this should take no more than 20 weeks.

The Ombudsman found that as a result, the father (Mr X) was caused uncertainty about whether his child, Y, could have started at their preferred school a year sooner if not for the fault.

During its investigation, the Ombudsman found that the council’s lack of educational psychologists has already “significantly delayed” many families in obtaining EHC Plans.

The report noted: “However, once the council receives the educational psychology advice it needs, it is still routinely taking more than 7 months to finalise EHC Plans. This is significant drift and delay by this council affecting hundreds of its children and young people with special educational needs.”

During the period investigated by the Ombudsman, the council revealed it had issued 791 EHC Plans. The majority of those (614 or 78%) were issued more than 30 weeks after an educational psychologist’s advice was provided.

To remedy the injustice caused, the council was recommended to apologise to the father who brought the complaint, and pay him £1,000 to reflect the frustration and uncertainty caused by the delay.

Making recommendations to improve processes for the wider public, the Ombudsman told the council to:

• highlight current timescales on relevant webpages, so parents and carers are aware of potential delays.
• provide an action plan showing how it will improve its timeliness in issuing EHC Plans and improve its communication with families who are waiting for their plans.

According to the report, the council has agreed to the recommendations.

Julie Odams, Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman Chief Executive, said: “We have previously raised the issue of how a national shortage of educational psychologists is adding to the delays many families face when councils are creating EHC Plans for their children and young adults.

“However, in Leeds we have found significant delays after this specialist advice has been received – with EHC Plans routinely taking a further seven months to finalise.

“These significant delays are clearly having a major impact on hundreds of families across the city.

“I hope the action plan the council has now agreed to put in place will allow it to get a firm grip on its systems for supporting children, young people and their families.”

A spokesperson for Leeds City Council said: “Leeds City Council sincerely apologises to the family involved in this investigation, and we also apologise to all families impacted by delays in carrying out Education Health and Care assessments in Leeds. We do understand how frustrating and distressing delays are for everyone involved, at any stage of the assessment, and we’re extremely sorry for that.

“A huge amount of work has already taken place to improve the time taken to complete EHC assessments, and this work began before the Ombudsman’s complaint and investigation. This includes our prioritising and focusing on the most urgent EHC cases and increasing our pool of education psychologists. We’re also writing to parents to ensure they are better informed of any delays and aim to keep them better updated about their individual cases.

“However, we fully accept the Ombudsman’s decision, findings and recommendations and we will implement the recommendations in full as part of our work to improve the speed and quality of how we process EHC assessments and how we keep parents informed throughout the process.”

Lottie Winson