Herts Council to pay almost £10k to parent for son’s lack of educational provision after he was expelled

The boy – who was already being assessed for an Education, Health and Care Plan – was excluded from his school in September 2022.

And at that point the council should have arranged suitable education, at school or elsewhere.

But the parent complained to the Ombudsman that the child did not receive any form of education between September 2022 and May 2023.

She also complained that after the council issued an EHCP in April 2023, her son did not receive the specified provision.

And she said that this had had a significant impact on the boy’s education and social development – and had caused distress and uncertainty.

An investigation into the compliant – in which the boy is referred to as Y – has been conducted by the LGSCO.

And following that investigation the county council agreed to pay the child’s parent £8100 to recognise the loss of education and a further £400 for distress and uncertainty.

“Y went without a significant amount of education between 2022 and 2024 including large periods with nothing in place at all,” says the LGSCO report.

“Once Y had an EHC Plan in place he went over a whole academic year without receiving any of the specialist provision in the Plan.

“Had the Council put in place the specialist provision including mentoring and social aspects then Y may have been in a better place to engage fully with the home tuition.

“This impacted on Y’s education and social development and caused Ms X distress and uncertainty.”

According to the Ombudsman’s findings the boy did receive three weeks of tuition before the end of the 2022/23 academic year.

And from November 2023, says the report, there was some home tuition in place, in line with his EHCP.

But other specialist provision specified in the EHCP, including mentoring, was not.

This continued, says the report by the LGSCO, until May 2024 – the month the parent lodged a complaint with the LGSCO – when “a package of provision” was put in place.

The EHCP issued for the child in May 2023 had specified measures that included one-to-one tuition, support with structure and routine and multi-sensory teaching.

It also included development of social and communication skills, small group work with emotional coaching and various mentoring sessions.

As part of the investigation the LGSCO also found that the council’s compliant handling was “poor” – suggesting it took five months to issue a “stage one response” to a complaint made in July 2023.

Commenting on the findings of the LGSCO a spokesperson for Hertfordshire County Council said: “We acknowledge the findings of the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) when a ruling is made against the council.

“While every effort is made to meet statutory time frames in this case the level of service fell short of what parents should expect.

“While we cannot discuss individual cases, we sincerely apologise to the parent and child and continue to take steps to improve service standards for children with special educational needs and disabilities.”