Summary: Ms B complained that Devon County Council failed to make arrangements for her daughter’s transfer to post-16 education. This is despite her daughter having special needs detailed in an Education, Health and Care Plan and the Council therefore being responsible for making these arrangements. Ms B said that as a result of the Council’s failings her daughter missed out on education and specialist support. Ms B also said it resulted in her losing her tax credits which were withdrawn because her daughter was not in school.

Finding

The Ombudsman upheld the complaint and found fault causing injustice.

Recommendations

To remedy the complaint, the Council has agreed to:

• apologise to Ms B and Ms M for all the identified faults and the impact these have had on them;
• pay Ms M £3,000 for the impact of having no educational or special educational support between September 2019 and February 2020;
• pay Ms M £1,000 for the avoidable distress, lost opportunity, uncertainty and anxiety caused by the Council’s poor handling of her educational and special needs during the period of this complaint;
• pay Ms B £500 for the avoidable frustration and time and trouble she was caused having to repeatedly chase the council to arrange education for Ms M;
• pay Ms B £100 for the avoidable frustration caused by its refusal to complete its consideration of her complaint after offering to do so and before its complaints procedure changed;
• pay Ms B the equivalent of the tax credits she lost upon Ms B providing the Council with evidence of the amount she lost;
• pay Ms B £200 to recognise the avoidable anxiety and distress the additional financial worries resulting from the withdrawn tax credits caused her; and
• make a payment of £200 to recognise the lost opportunity to appeal against the failure to name post-16 provision in the Summer term of 2019.

To ensure similar faults do not occur in future the Council will, within three months of this report, provide us with evidence it has:

• reviewed its procedures on post-16 education arrangements for young people with EHC Plans to ensure the transfer process is started in time to name a placement by the end of March in the year of transfer;
• ensured its staff are adequately trained and understand the current processes around the transfer to post-16 education for children with EHC Plans;
• ensured staff are aware that children do not have to apply for a place and that the Council must name a placement by 31 March of the year of transfer;
• taken steps to improve its record keeping to address the administrative failures identified in this case. Specifically, it should keep adequate records of emails and phone calls, of all letters and EHC Plans issued, and of parental responses. It should provide us with details of how it will achieve this; and
• undertaken an audit of its handling of all post-16 transition arrangements for children with an EHC Plan for the last two years and tell us how many of these were completed and a final amended EHC Plan issued naming a post 16 placement by 31 March of the relevant year. If it is failing to achieve this it should give us details of how it will remedy this.

The Council should also provide us with updated information about the educational and special needs support and provision it is making for Ms M and demonstrate this meets the requirements in her current EHC Plan.

Ombudsman satisfied with Council's response: 6 July 2022.

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