Family receive payout from Hertfordshire County Council after late education plan

As part of the complaint the parent claimed that the council had taken too long to assess her son’s needs and issue the EHCP, had ‘named’ an unsuitable school for her son to attend and had ‘communicated with her poorly’.

As a result she said her son had missed out on a “significant” amount of education – and that the family’s wellbeing had been impacted.

According to the Ombudsman’s report the boy had struggled at school for several years and his mother requested that his needs be assessed in September 2022.

After initially refusing to assess the child the council did agree to an assessment in July 2023.

And, says the Ombudsman, an EHCP should have been issued within 14 weeks of that decision.

But the EHCP was not issued until March 2024 – which the Ombudsman says was “five months late”.

Following receipt of the EHCP, the mother complained about flaws in the assessment process and poor communication from the council.

She said she was not satisfied with the EHCP or the mainstream school that the council had decided her son should attend.

In response the Ombudsman finds that the delay in issuing the EHCP caused the parent “significant frustration” and “leaves a remaining uncertainty about whether the outcome could have been different”.

And he recommends a payment of £500 – equivalent to £100 for each month of delay, in recognition of the frustration and uncertainty.

He also finds that the council has already accepted that its communication with the parent had been “poor” between December 2023 and May 2024. And he recommends a “symbolic payment” of £200.

In addition he says that he would normally have made further recommendation on how the council should improve the performance of its special educational needs service.

But he recognises the improvement notice made by the Department for Education covering these issues in January 2024.

He says that the council already has an improvement plan in place covering the same issues.

And he says he has decided “it would not be appropriate to make similar recommendations.”

In response to the Ombudsman’s report the county council points to the increase in requests for EHC assessment and to the increase in children with EHCPs in Hertfordshire schools.

It points to the investment the council has made in SEND workforce, as well as the efforts made to increase the timeliness of the process.

And it has welcomed the Ombudsman’s recognition of their “improvement journey.

Responding to the Ombudsman’s findings, a spokesperson for the county council said: “We have welcomed the Ombudsman’s recognition of the improvement journey we are on, and whilst we have seen significant improvements in both quality and timeliness of EHCPs more recently, know that there is much more work to do in order that these improvements are widespread for families across Hertfordshire.

“Through the Ombudsman process we have apologised to the family involved in this case and continue to be committed to partnership working to better support families.

“We recognise that whilst significant progress has been made, and the service is starting to see some impacts, that experiences will not have improved immediately for all children, young people and families across Hertfordshire.

“We continuously seek feedback on children and young people’s current lived experience to assess the impact of actions and remain committed as a partnership to delivering the improvements needed to support families across the county. “

According to the county council the number of children in Hertfordshire schools with an EHCP has increased by 43 per cent- from 6,500 in January 2022 to more than 9,000 now.

And they say that while in 2021 they received 2100 requests for an EHC assessment, by 2024 that had increased to 3,350.

They say that 54 per cent of assessments were completed within 20 weeks in 2024 – compared to 40 per cent in 2023 and 33 per cent in 2022.