Summary: The Council failed to implement alternative educational provision for Mr X’s child, Y after they stopped attending school. This was fault which caused Y to miss out on education. The Council has apologised and offered Mr X £7200 to remedy the injustice caused. We are satisfied with the Council’s actions. The Council was also at fault for its delayed complaint responses. It has agreed to apologise and pay Mr X £100 to remedy the injustice caused by this.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained the Council failed to implement alternative educational provision for his child, Y after they stopped attending school due to illness.
2. Mr X says Y has missed out on an education and this has caused distress, frustration and uncertainty.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. If we are satisfied with an organisation’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)
4. Under our information sharing agreement, we will share this decision with the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted).

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What I have and have not investigated

5. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended). Some of Mr X’s complaint is late as he says the Council failed to implement alternative educational provision from September 2021 but he did not come to us until February 2025.
6. I have exercised discretion to investigate the lack of alternative educational provision in the 2023-2024 school year. It was reasonable for Mr X to complain to us earlier about matters before September 2023.

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How I considered this complaint

7. I considered evidence provided by Mr X and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
8. Mr X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments before making a final decision.

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What I found

Relevant law and guidance

Alternative provision

9. Councils must arrange suitable education at school or elsewhere for pupils who are out of school because of exclusion, illness or for other reasons, if they would not receive suitable education without such arrangements. The provision generally should be full-time unless it is not in the child’s interests. (Education Act 1996, section 19). We refer to this as section 19 or alternative education provision.
10. This applies to all children of compulsory school age living in the local council area, whether or not they are on the roll of a school. (Statutory guidance ‘Alternative Provision’ January 2013)
11. There is no absolute legal deadline by which local authorities must start to arrange education for children with additional health needs. However, as soon as it is clear that a child will be away from school for 15 days or more because of their health needs, the local authority should arrange suitable alternative provision. The 15 days may be consecutive or over the course of a school year.
12. All local authorities should have a written, publicly accessible policy statement on

their arrangements for complying with the section19 duty.

Council’s complaint policy

13. The policy says it will deal with stage one complaints within 10 working days and with stage two complaints within 28 days.

What happened

14. Mr X has a child Y who is of secondary school age. In 2021, when Y was in year seven, they stopped attending school due to long-term health issues.
15. The Council accepted it had a section 19 duty in the autumn term of 2021 and offered alternative provision to Y. However, this was on site education which was not accessible to Y due to their health needs. The Council closed the referral without exploring any further alternative provision.
16. Y started year nine in September 2023 but was only able attend nine days due to their persistent health issues. In February 2024, Mr X made another request for alternative provision but the Council did not action this.
17. The same month Mr X raised a stage one complaint. Mr X said his child had been unable to attend school since 2021 to date and despite contacting the Council on numerous occasions about alternative provision, it had failed to put in place a suitable education for Y.
18. In August 2024, the Council issued a stage one complaint response upholding the complaint. It apologised and offered Mr X a financial remedy of £1800.
19. The same month Mr X requested the Council to consider his complaint at stage two. Mr X calculated that Y had received less than 20% of the education they should have received and said the Council should offer a minimum payment of £6500. Mr X also said there was no section 19 policy on the Council’s website.
20. In September 2024, Mr X made the choice to educate Y using Elective Home Education.
21. The Council issued a stage two complaint response in March 2025 upholding the complaint. It accepted that inadequate procedures and processes regarding Section 19 duties contributed to its failure of securing appropriate education for Y for a significant period of time. The Council offered a total sum of £7200 for loss of education. The Council also said it was drafting a section 19 policy and this would be made publicly available when finalised.
22. Mr X remained dissatisfied with the matter and complained to us.

My findings

Alternative provision

23. The Council confirmed it failed to implement suitable alternative educational provision for Y in the 2023-2024 school year despite accepting it owed Y a section 19 duty. This was fault which caused Y to miss out on a year of education which is the equivalent of three school terms.
24. We typically recommend between £900 and £2400 per term in recognition of lost provision, depending on the severity of loss. The Council offered Mr X a payment of £7200 to recognise lost provision from September 2021-July 2024. For the period I have investigated, from September 2023-July 2024, I am satisfied the £7200 is a sufficient remedy. The Council has confirmed this offer is still available for Mr X to accept should he wish to.
25. The Council said the fault occurred due to inadequate policies and procedures in relation to its section 19 duties. I have made a service improvement recommendation to prevent future injustice from similar fault.

Complaint handling

26. Mr X raised a stage one complaint to the Council in February 2024. The Council should have issued a complaint response in ten working days and by early March at the latest. The Council issued the stage one response five months outside of timescales which was fault.
27. Mr X raised a stage two complaint in August 2024. The Council should have issued a complaint response in 28 days and by the end of September at the latest. The Council issued the stage two response six months outside of this timescale which was fault.
28. The delayed complaint responses caused Mr X distress, frustration and uncertainty. It was also a missed opportunity to resolve the complaint sooner. I have made a service improvement recommendation to prevent future injustice from similar fault.

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Action

29. Within one month of the final decision, the Council has agreed to:
1. Apologise to Mr X for the distress, frustration and uncertainty caused by its delayed complaint responses. We publish guidance on remedies which sets out our expectations for how organisations should apologise effectively to remedy injustice. The organisation should consider this guidance in making the apology I have recommended in my findings.
2. Pay Mr X £100 to recognise the distress, frustration and uncertainty caused by its delayed complaint responses.
3. Pay Mr X £7200 to recognise Y’s missed education for the 2023-2024 school year.
4. Share the learning from this investigation with relevant officers who facilitate complaint responses to ensure complaints are responded to within the timeframes set out in the Council’s policy.
5. Ensure its section 19 policy is finalised and publicly available on the Council’s website.
30. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Decision

31. I find fault causing injustice. The Council has agreed actions to remedy injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman