Herts Council told to pay out £2,300 for missed educational provision away from school setting

HERTFORDSHIRE County Council has agreed to pay £2300 to a parent for failing to ensure her child was provided with suitable education away from the school setting.

Where a child cannot attend school – due to exclusion, medical reasons or ‘otherwise’ – the local education authority should arrange alternative provision.

But in this case the child was offered no – or limited – alternative provision by the county council for eight months, between April and July 2022 and between September and December 2022.

And following an investigation the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, the council has now agreed to pay the parent £250 for each month of ‘missed’ provision and a further £300 for ‘time and trouble’.

According to the findings of the Ombudsman, the child – who has ‘complex needs’ – had not been attending school since May 2021.

And in March 2022 the child’s school reported that it could not meet her needs.

Professional advice then suggested school was not an appropriate setting for the child and the parent requested a bespoke package.

And by the end of May the council had agreed to provide a tutor for up to 15 hours a week, two hours of occupational therapy and two hours of mentoring.

But a disagreement about the provision meant the tutoring was put on hold until the September.

And although the council confirmed a tutor was required in August, the tutoring service could not then provide a tutor for the child’s needs in the September.

A tutor, according to the report, has been in place since January (2023).

Crucially the Ombudsman found that the child’s ‘education, health and care plan’ – that sets out the provision required – was not updated quickly enough.

Whereas it should have been updated by the end of May 2022, it was not updated until February 2023. And the Ombudsman ruled the council was ‘at fault’ for this significant delay.

The Ombudsman also highlighted the missed educational provision from March 2022, when the council had become aware the child was not attending school.

The Ombudsman directed the council to apologise in writing to the parent for the EHCP delays and the provision her daughter has missed out on – as well as paying her £300 ‘for her time and trouble in pursuing the complaint’.

He also directed the council to pay the parent £2000 in recognition of the missed provision – calculated at £250 per month between April and July 2022 and September to December 2022.

In response to the Ombudsman’s findings a spokesperson for the county council pointed to the increasing requests for support for specialist provision.

And he told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “We take the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman’s findings very seriously and where they find we have been at fault, we work hard to understand why that has happened, how we can put it right and how we can prevent it happening again.

“We would like to apologise to the family involved in this case.

“We are committed to working in partnership with young people, parents, carers and schools to ensure that all children with SEND and EHCPs in Hertfordshire receive the support they need and deserve.

“The number of children being identified who may require SEND support continues to increase, raising challenges both nationally and here in Hertfordshire.

“In common with many local authorities, we are experiencing an unprecedented increase in requests for specialist provision, with a 47 per cent increase in pupils with Education and Health Care Plans (EHCPs) since 2019, as well as the additional challenges due to COVID-19.

“We are making new investments into the SEND system and are fully committed to making sure that all children with SEND and EHCPs in Hertfordshire receive the support they need and deserve.”

In the report the Ombudsman also noted the council’s ongoing work to ensure EHCPs are issued within statutory time-frames.

And he reported that he was ‘satisfied’ with the steps the council has said it is taking to improve its SEN service as a whole.