Ombudsman: York council failed to give a non-verbal Autistic boy the communication support in his EHC Plan

An Education, Health and Care Plan is meant to be a legal promise. A decision published by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman on 5 November shows what happens when that promise isn’t kept.

The Ombudsman has upheld a complaint against City of York Council from the mother of a non-verbal Autistic boy who relies on Makaton to communicate. His EHC Plan said all teaching staff working in his classroom had to be trained in Makaton to level three to four. The Ombudsman found that between September 2023 and July 2025, not all of his teachers were trained to that level.

What the Ombudsman found

According to the decision, the council had accepted, in response to the family’s legal letter, that it had breached its duty and failed to deliver the provision. The council said staff absences and course cancellations had delayed the training. The Ombudsman said that did not excuse the delay, and that the council should have looked for other training providers.

The Ombudsman’s news release says that for more than a year, either no member of staff or at most one held the required level of qualification. It describes the training as patchy and slow, with staff still learning Makaton while they were teaching the boy. It also says the boy’s mother was repeatedly left chasing the council for updates.

The decision is direct: “We find fault by the Council which has caused injustice to Mrs X and Y.” (The Ombudsman does not name the family, and neither do we.)

What happens now

The council had already paid the boy’s mother £9,000 for the missed provision. The Ombudsman recommended an apology and a further £1,575 for the boy’s loss of provision between March 2024 and July 2025. The council must also review its procedures, and draw up an action plan to reduce delays in Makaton training and commission more trainers. The Ombudsman says the council has accepted these recommendations.

Julie Odams, Chief Executive at the Ombudsman, said: “A legal duty to a disabled child is not something a council can work around.”

Why it matters

For a non-verbal child whose Plan depends on signing, untrained staff are not a minor gap in provision. They are the difference between being understood at school and not. In this newsroom’s view, payments and action plans matter, but they can’t give back more than a year of school without the communication support the law required.

It is also a reminder of why families hold on so tightly to the legal duty an EHC Plan creates.

This piece summarises the Ombudsman’s published decision and news release. Read the original decision for the full findings.