Overview:

Key to names used

Ms B The complainant

C Her son

Summary

Ms B complained that Dorset Council failed to adequately meet her eleven-year- old son’s educational and special educational needs from 2020 until it identified and placed him at a special needs school in 2021. She also complained that Council officers changed frequently, consistently failed to respond to her calls and emails and failed to deal properly with her complaints.

Finding

Fault found causing injustice and recommendations made.

Recommendations

The Council must consider the report and confirm within three months the action it has taken or proposes to take. The Council should consider the report at its full Council, Cabinet or other appropriately delegated committee of elected members and we will require evidence of this. (Local Government Act 1974, section 31(2), as amended)

To recognise the injustice caused to Ms B and C the Council will, within one month of the date of this report:

• apologise in writing to Ms B;

• pay £250 to recognise the lost opportunity for C to have received provision between May and July 2020 when it seems unlikely the Council made “reasonable endeavours” to provide education after his Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan was introduced;

• pay £6,300 to recognise the impact of lost education and special education provision on C. This comprises £4,800 for the periods February to July and September to October 2020 when no alternative provision was made and C was transferring to secondary school. This is calculated at £600 a month. For the three month period from November 2020 to January 2021 when some partial provision was made we recommend a further payment of £1,500 which is calculated at £500 a month;

• pay £250 to recognise the lost opportunity to comment on the draft EHC plan in February 2021 or to appeal to the SEND tribunal when the final plan was issued in the same month;

• pay £750 to C to recognise the avoidable distress and anxiety caused by the extended period of uncertainty around his education and special educational needs provision and the particular impact of this on him given his propensity for stress and anxiety;

• pay £750 to Ms B to recognise the impact on her of the failure to make adequate provision for C in the form of lost opportunity, stress and frustration;

• pay £250 to recognise the avoidable time and trouble Ms B was caused in having to complain to the Council and to us for the matter to be resolved; and

• pay a further £250 to recognise the avoidable frustration caused by the Council’s poor communication with Ms B over a protracted period of time.

To ensure that similar faults do not occur in future we make a number of service improvement recommendations. These take account of recommendations made on other recent complaints where we have identified faults that are similar to those identified in this complaint. The Council should, within three months of the date of this report tell us and provide evidence of how it will:

• ensure that annual reviews and transfer reviews will be tracked for all children with an EHC plan to ensure that these are arranged, that they take place and that the proper action is taken to then amend, maintain or cease a plan and that this happens without delay;

• improve its record-keeping and communication with parents to ensure that parents know who their child’s allocated Special Educational Needs (SEN) officer is, parents are informed of changes and there is an efficient handover of information and outstanding tasks when new staff take over a case;

• improve its handling of complaints to ensure that responses are provided according to the published process, that any verbal agreements to resolve complaints result in clear action and are clearly recorded; and

• ensure that suitable alternative educational provision is made for children who require it and more broadly what steps it will take to ensure that it can access a supply of suitable alternative provision that is able to meet a range of children’s educational and other needs. The Council should also provide us with details of how it will track alternative provision that is being made to children and how it will ensure that support for children who are out of school meets their educational and special educational needs.

The Council has accepted our recommendations.

Ombudsman satisfied with Council's response: 5 August 2022

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