Summary: Ms X says the Council failed to provide her son (Y) with suitable education when his school placement broke down. Ms X also says her son’s Education Health and Care (EHC) plan is not fit for purpose.

Finding

The Ombudsman upheld the complaint and found fault causing injustice.

Recommendations

The Council has agreed to:

• reimburse Ms X for the cost of paying for education for Y between January 2019 and 12 April 2019. The Council should ask Ms X to provide invoices or receipts for tutoring paid for during this  period;
• pay Ms X £1,400 for the seven months Y was without a suitable education. This is towards the lower end of what we would usually recommend as we have taken account of the fact some  education was provided in this period; and
• pay Ms X £250 for the distress and time and trouble she was caused pursuing the Council to provide her son with a suitable education.

The Council should take this action within three months of the date of this report.

The Council has also agreed to:

• review its decision-making processes to make sure that it is able to respond quickly and flexibly to changing needs of children with Special Educational Needs. The Council should make sure that officers are able to put in any recommended provision without delay and, if necessary, before an EHC plan is finalised; and
• review internal communication and information sharing processes to make sure information is shared between teams and departments about children who may be out of education or where education being provided is not suitable or at risk of breaking down. If necessary, the Council should introduce a process where officers can highlight situations where a child is out of education or where a placement or education arrangement is at risk of breaking down. The Council should take the above action within three months of the date of this report and provide us with reports setting out the outcome of both reviews and any action it proposes to take.

The Council should provide its People and Communities Select Committee with regular updates on its performance for two full financial years in terms of the following:

• number of children out of education;
• average time for arranging alternative education provision for children who have been out of education;
• average time taken to produce final EHC plans and EHC plan reviews compared with statutory timescales; and
• number of upheld complaints about EHC plans and education provision from both the Council’s own complaints process and us.

These updates should be provided each time the Committee meets during the above period.

We will share our final decision with Ofsted.

Ombudsman satisfied with Council's response: 15 July 2020

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