Shropshire Council told to pay more than £3k to mother

Shropshire Council must pay a mother more than £3,000 for the way it handled her child’s Education, Heath and Care (EHC) plan.

The mother, referred to as Mrs X, was first issued with an EHC plan for her child (referred to as Y) on August 4, 2022, including “specific achievable targets” relating to their speech and language skills. This was a month before the child started primary school.

On December 12, 2023, the council held an annual review for the EHC plan, with a final amended version issued the following March.

On April 29, 2024, Mrs X made a formal complaint to Shropshire Council, saying it had not provided speech and language therapy for Y since the EHC plan was produced. She also complained that the council failed to complete the annual review of Y’s EHC plan within the statutory timescales.

On June 7, 2024, the council provided a stage one complaint response to Mrs X. It said that, despite providing funding to Y’s school, it had not initiated the provision of speech and language therapy yet.

Shropshire Council apologised for the lack of provision and promised to work with Mrs X and the school to decide how it could increase this to meet Y’s needs. The council also upheld Mrs X’s complaint about the delays.

A speech and language therapist provided the first session for Y on June 17, 2024, followed by a second on July 1, 2024.

Mrs X  sought consideration of her complaint at stage two on July 24, 2024. The council acknowledged it and promised a response by September 4, 2024.

The therapist provided three home visit sessions for Y over the summer in 2024, followed by two further visits in November and December.

On December 6, 2024, Shropshire Council issued a stage two complaint response. It said it accepted it had failed to provide suitable speech and language therapy for Y, and apologised for the delays in respinding to Mrs X.

The council added that speech and language therapy was now in place at Y’s school and the child was benefiting from twice-weekly input.

The council also said it needed to make sure appropriate reviews of the therapy were taking place. The therapist made visits to work with Y three times in March 2025 and once in April, with further sessions planned.

However, last October, Mrs X brought her complaint to the Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman (LGO). The Ombudsman would normally only look at matters dating back to October 2023.

However, it exercised its discretion to investigate Mrs X’s complaint back to August 2022. This was because Mrs X would not have known until August 2023 that Shropshire Council had failed to review her child’s EHC plan within the statutory timescales.

“It would also not have been immediately clear to Mrs X the council was failing to provide her child with the speech and language therapy provision following production of the August 2022 EHC plan,” said the Ombudsman.

“Mrs X allowed the council time to put this provision in place. This is good reason for the Ombudsman to exercise our discretion.”

Reaching its decision on May 11, the Ombdusman said that Shropshire Council should pay Mrs X £2,700 for the loss of speech and language therapy provision from August 22, 2022 to March 2024.

A further £300 should also be paid for the “frustration, distress and uncertainty” caused through its six-month delay which was outside the statutory timescales in completing the annual review process for Y’s EHC plan.

And £100 would be paid for the “inconvenience and frustration” caused through its two-month delay in providing its stage one complaint response, which was outside the council’s complaint handling process.

The council was told that the full amount was to be payable within one month, with evidence provided that it has complied.

Shropshire Council has been approached for comment, but had not responded at the time of writing.