Staffordshire County Council has been ordered to pay £1,500 to a local father after his child was left waiting ten months for the educational support he was entitled to. 

The Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman has upheld a complaint from 'Mr X' that his child, 'Y', was caused "frustration, uncertainty and distress" over delays to his Education, Health and Care plan. 

Children with special educational needs, such as Y, may have an EHC plan which specify their needs and how they will be met.  

Local councils "have a duty to arrange the special educational provision set out in an EHC plan." 

The complaint stated that Y had "missed education and support he is entitled to" due to a ten-month delay in updating the plan following an annual review in August 2024. 

The year before, the council had agreed the child would receive online tuition in core subjects, sessions to help with his social, emotional, and mental health as well as a gym membership. 

This was to be paid for by direct debits directly to the parents through an 'Education Other Than At School' arrangement. 

The investigation found that Y's annual review meeting had taken place on 12 August 2024, where it was identified his needs had changed, and the council should have issued an amended draft EHC plan by 9 September. 

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This included changes to his personal budget – the cost of the associated extra care. 

However, a draft plan for Y was not issued until 29 July 2025, a delay of around ten months, during which time the father complained multiple times to the council and had to escalate the issue to the ombudsman. 

Nevertheless, the delay in finalising the child's EHC plan meant that Y "was unable to secure a new online school place", which the investigator called "an injustice". 

Mr X also complained about "poor communication from the council". 

In its report the ombudsman found: "The council has paid invoices provided by Mr X for Y's provision during the academic year 2024/205.  

"I am therefore satisfied that Y received some of the educational provision he needs during this period. 

"However, the delay in finalising Y's EHC plan means Y was unable to secure a new online school place and so he has been without this provision since the start of the 2024/2025 academic year.  

"This is an injustice to Y. 

"Mr X has been put to avoidable time and trouble in pursuing the council to try to finalise Y's EHC plan.  

"He also received poor communication from the council which has caused him additional frustration. This is injustice." 

The ombudsman has fined the council an additional £300 for "the unnecessary time and trouble" Mr X was caused by the council's lack of communication.  

Within one month of the investigator's final decision in January, the council should have apologised to Mr X and Y and "urgently" issued a final EHC plan.  

Staffordshire County Council were approached for comment and according to Janet Higgins, Staffordshire County Council's Cabinet member for Education and SEND: "Parts of this case have been mishandled, exacerbated by a key worker being absent through ill health, and we have apologised for the problems that have arisen. 

"As a result of the ongoing demand within the SEND services we have allocated additional staff which are arriving this year. 

 "At the same time, we are currently restructuring the service to increase the number of operational staff to improve our timeliness and responses to families." 

See the full report here.