Education

East Sussex County Council (18 012 500)

Report Upheld School transport 20-Jan-2020

Summary: Mr X complains about the Council's decision to provide home to college transport for his adult learner son, Mr A, for four days a week instead of five days. Mr X says the Council considered irrelevant information when it made its decision.

Luton Borough Council (18 012 490)

Report Upheld Special educational needs 20-Dec-2019

Summary: Ms X complains the Council failed to review and update her child's (Y's) original Education and Health Care (EHC) Plan, dated August 2015, until October 2018; failed to respond appropriately to her concerns about Y's deteriorating behaviour in 2017 and 2018, and her requests in March 2018 for early review of Y's EHC Plan, a new assessment by an educational psychologist and then for a complete reassessment of Y's needs; failed to gather sufficient professional evidence before the annual review which started in June 2018 and then delayed producing an amended EHC Plan; and delayed dealing with her complaint about these issues and failed to resolve the complaint satisfactorily.

Derby City Council (18 015 698)

Report Upheld Special educational needs 06-Dec-2019

Summary: Mrs B complains that the Council delayed excessively in producing a final education and healthcare plan (EHCP) for her daughter C, failed to provide any education since September 2016 and repeatedly threatened Mrs B with legal action for her daughter's non-attendance at school.

London Borough of Richmond upon Thames (18 013 211)

Report Upheld Special educational needs 18-Oct-2019

Summary: Mr and Mrs X complain the Council failed to make the provision specified in their daughter's (Ms X) Education Health and Care (EHC) Plan between July 2016 and February 2018. The Council repeatedly allowed matters to drift and failed to review her EHC Plan during long periods when it knew it was out of date. It also failed to keep proper records. Ms X lost out on the provision she needed and was left frustrated. Mr and Mrs X were also put to considerable time and trouble in having to repeatedly chase the Council. Its poor record keeping made it hard for us to establish the full facts.

London Borough of Richmond upon Thames (18 001 501)

Report Upheld Special educational needs 18-Oct-2019

Summary: Mr and Mrs X complain the Council failed to make the provision specified in their daughter's (Ms X) Education Health and Care (EHC) Plan between July 2016 and February 2018. The Council repeatedly allowed matters to drift and failed to review her EHC Plan during long periods when it knew it was out of date. It also failed to keep proper records. Ms X lost out on the provision she needed and was left frustrated. Mr and Mrs X were also put to considerable time and trouble in having to repeatedly chase the Council. Its poor record keeping made it hard for us to establish the full facts.

London Borough of Richmond upon Thames (18 003 307)

Report Upheld Special educational needs 18-Oct-2019

Summary: Mr and Mrs X complain the Council failed to make the provision specified in their daughter's (Ms X) Education Health and Care (EHC) Plan between July 2016 and February 2018. The Council repeatedly allowed matters to drift and failed to review her EHC Plan during long periods when it knew it was out of date. It also failed to keep proper records. Ms X lost out on the provision she needed and was left frustrated. Mr and Mrs X were also put to considerable time and trouble in having to repeatedly chase the Council. Its poor record keeping made it hard for us to establish the full facts.

London Borough of Bexley (19 004 764)

Report Upheld School transport 02-Oct-2019

Summary: The Council failed to comply with an Ombudsman recommendation to carry out a new assessment of eligibility in three complaints about home to school transport for children with special educational needs (SEN) and mobility difficulties. We are issuing this report because the Council did not comply with our recommendations. We are concerned that, despite the service improvements the Council says it has made, it repeated the same fault.

London Borough of Bexley (19 004 765)

Report Upheld School transport 02-Oct-2019

Summary: The Council failed to comply with an Ombudsman recommendation to carry out a new assessment of eligibility in three complaints about home to school transport for children with special educational needs (SEN) and mobility difficulties. We are issuing this report because the Council did not comply with our recommendations. We are concerned that, despite the service improvements the Council says it has made, it repeated the same fault.

London Borough of Bexley (19 003 689)

Report Upheld School transport 02-Oct-2019

Summary: The Council failed to comply with an Ombudsman recommendation to carry out a new assessment of eligibility in three complaints about home to school transport for children with special educational needs (SEN) and mobility difficulties. We are issuing this report because the Council did not comply with our recommendations. We are concerned that, despite the service improvements the Council says it has made, it repeated the same fault.

Worcestershire County Council (18 009 584)

Report Upheld Special educational needs 22-Aug-2019

Summary: Mrs X complains about the Council's failure to make alternative educational provision for her son, Y, for more than a year when he was out of school. The Council agreed with Y's school's approach in excluding him informally in breach of the School Exclusions Code 2017. It also failed to make educational provision for him for more than a year, or to meet his special educational needs, or to update his Education Health and Care Plan. This meant Y lost out on education he needed. Although delays by the Council in dealing with Mrs X's complaint were only slight, the Council's corporate complaints procedure lacks timescales and has the potential to cause injustice to future complainants by delay.