North Tyneside Council has agreed to pay £5,900 to a family after the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman found it failed to provide promised specialist technology that would have allowed a child with special educational needs to learn from home - the second time the Ombudsman has ruled against the council for the same child.

The child has not attended school since September 2022 due to their special educational needs. Following an earlier Ombudsman investigation in August 2023, the council agreed to purchase specialist technology that would enable the child to interact with their class while learning from home.

The council said IT security restrictions and compatibility issues meant the technology could not be provided, but it then failed to arrange any alternative education for 13 months, leaving the child without suitable provision during a crucial GCSE year.

The council also did not attempt to put any other arrangements in place for the child’s education until September 2024. And even then, it relied on the school to make a referral to an alternative provider, chasing the school nine times rather than arranging provision directly.

Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, Mrs Amerdeep Clarke, said:

"This child was promised technology that should have kept them connected to their classroom and their peers at a crucial time in their education. Instead, they received nothing for more than a year. This can only have had a significant and detrimental impact on the child’s education and wellbeing.

“North Tyneside Council allowed this case to drift without any meaningful progress, and I am concerned there appeared to have been no oversight or urgency to ensure this young person received the education they were entitled to, especially given the council’s previous agreement.

“I now hope the change it has committed to make to its management of alternative provision does in fact take place and will ensure greater oversight in future of services for children who cannot attend school.”

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman remedies injustice and shares learning from investigations to help improve public, and adult social care, services. In this case the council has agreed to apologise to the family and pay them £5,900 in recognition of the impact on the child’s education.

The Ombudsman has the power to make recommendations to improve processes for the wider public. In this case the council has agreed to review its processes to ensure it maintains oversight where it relies on schools to arrange alternative provision and takes timely action when a school does not arrange the provision or the planned provision cannot take place.

Article date: 12 February 2026