Help! Tribunal decision not implemented in EHCP

[cakesandtea]

Bloody this. Just realised. What to do now?

Formal complaint to council then ombudsman. Process is explained in parent leaflet on tribunal website

Any experience of how this tends to unfold?

Usually a complaint works as they don't want a negative ombudsman decision

I would get LA on it sharp, and let them know that if you believe they are not enforcing compliance as is their duty you will resort to Judicial Review - let the school know the same. SOSSEN do preaction JR letters for about £80, it usually gets the LA moving pretty fast.

Amunt, are you saying go to JR rather than Ombudsman?

JR is much, much quicker than an ombudsman. Local authorities normally respond to a pre-action letter which sets a deadline of a fortnight at most, whereas the ombudsman takes months.

However, before going to a formal letter you should try resolving this amicably. Write to the LA setting out what they haven't implemented and asking for immediate confirmation that they will sort it out. If that doesn't work, you may find that just by writing to the LA threatening JR they will wake up, as they will realise that someone who knows what the appropriate legal remedy is is highly likely to put it into action. If they still don't respond, you will need a formal pre-action letter and it sounds like SOS SEN can do it much more cheaply than solicitors. I believe that they have a solicitor on their staff so the letter would be done properly.

Why does LA resorts to such lowly measures? Is it a common thing?

I'm not clear whether you're saying they've issued an EHCP that doesn't comply with what the tribunal ordered, or they've issued a correct EHCP that hasn't been implemented? Either way, I wouldn't discount the possibility that it's sheer incompetence rather than anything deliberate.

EHCP does not comply...