Summary: Mrs C complained on behalf of her son Z, that the Council failed to ensure Z received suitable full-time education and Special Educational Needs (SEN) provision after it concluded he was unable to attend school for health reasons. Mrs C says that upon Z’s return to school, the Council continued to fail to provide the SEN provision.

Finding

The Ombudsman upheld the complaint and found fault found causing injustice.

Recommendations

To remedy the injustice caused by the fault found the Council should:

• apologise to Z and Mrs C and offer to make a payment of £4,000 for Z’s lost education and SEN provision for a school year. This should be used for the benefit of Z’s education;
• offer to pay Mrs C £2,400 to cover the cost of Z’s physiotherapy sessions she arranged and paid for;
• offer to make a further payment of £3,200 for Z’s lost SEN provision between September 2016 and May 2018; and
• offer to pay Mrs C £200 for the distress and time and trouble she was caused pursuing the Council to provide Z an education.

To prevent a repeat of the faults found in this complaint, the Council should:

• remind staff that the Council has a duty to assess children who are out of education due to poor health, and to provide a suitable alternative education provision.
• The Council should also complete an audit of all the children that receive SEN provision at Z’s school, to ensure this provision is being met. If it finds that it is not, it should put an action plan in place to address this. Those affected should also be signposted to the Council’s complaints procedure. The Council should then report back to us on its findings and any action it intends to take.

Ombudsman satisfied with Council's response: 25 November 2021.

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