Summary: Mrs X complained that the Council failed to provide her son (referred to in this report as Y) with an education for five years because he had regularly not been in school and no alternative provision had been made. She also complained that Y had not received the support set out in his Statement of Special Educational Needs (SEN).

Finding

The Ombudsman upheld the complaint and found fault causing injustice.

Recommendations

The fault identified meant that Y missed out on education and SEN provision for the majority of his secondary school years. We welcome that the Council has accepted our findings and agreed to the following recommendations.

The Council has agreed to:

• make a payment of £22,500 to Y to reflect the impact of the missed provision. In part, this could be used to fund a shed that would help Y manage his mental health, with the remainder placed in trust for Y.
• recognise the impact to Mrs X from the lack of provision for Y, the distress and uncertainty about how much the provision may have helped Y over an extended period. To reflect this the Council will pay Mrs X £1,000.

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