Ombudsman/LGO educational and social care EHCP
I have submitted several complaints to the Ombudsman — all related to my child’s EHCP and social care package. In every case there was a clear fault on the part of the Council. Unfortunately, the Ombudsman now appears to be siding with the Council. I have seen draft decisions where the Ombudsman seemed to make up their own rules. By law, the local authority must provide the provision ordered by the Tribunal within five weeks of the order date, but the Ombudsman stated that the Council could take at least three months to provide this provision. Hydrotherapy was not provided by the Council for more than 12 months, yet the Ombudsman said this was acceptable because no local hydrotherapy was available — even though I had specifically requested a personal budget to arrange it myself. These are only examples. Each time, I had to request an independent, final Ombudsman decision, and fortunately my requests were upheld, the cases were reopened, and the correct decisions were eventually made. However, it is deeply worrying and frightening that families must fight even with the Ombudsman — an organisation that is supposed to understand and apply the law fairly, not take the Council’s side against the law. What happens to people who are not as determined as I have been?