West Sussex County Council has paid £2,000 to the mother of a child with special needs after he missed out on a full education for a term.
The mother – known as Mrs F – lodged a complaint with the Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman after waiting for months for the council to amend her son’s Education, Health & Care Plan to make provision for him to be educated outside of a school setting.
The report said that a tribunal ordered the council to amend the plan in January 2023 and it should have been issued within five weeks.
But the work was not completed until July.
In the meantime, the council had asked the boy’s school to remove him from their roll before the ‘education other than in school’ (EOTAS) provision was in place.
The report also said that an annual review of the plan, which should have been carried out in April 2023, did not go ahead.
The report stated:
“The government’s statutory guidance on exclusion from maintained schools makes clear unofficial exclusions are unlawful and ‘off-rolling’ should be done in a planned way when new provision is in place.
“I therefore find fault.
“However, I do not find this caused injustice as it is unlikely [the child] would have attended the school even if he had been on the roll.”
The ombudsman found the council to be at fault for the delay in amending the education, health & care plan.
The report said:
“If there had been no fault the plan would have been issued, the personal budget agreed and full EOTAS provision started by March 2023.
“Although [the child] was receiving 12 hours’ tuition and PE sessions, he has missed out on the full educational and special educational needs provision set out in his plan from March to July 2023, effectively one school term.
“This is his injustice.”
The council agreed to pay Mrs F £1,600 for the loss of education and SEN provision between March and July 2023, £200 for the distress caused, and £200 to remedy the time and trouble she was caused by a delay in handling her complaint.
A council spokesman said:
“We accept the ombudsman’s findings, have apologised to the family involved and a financial remedy has been paid.
“We acknowledge that we were at fault for the delay in issuing an Education, Health & Care Plan and failing to provide suitable education.
“We understand the distress that this caused and we have taken action to address the issues that caused this delay to reduce the risk of this situation arising again.”
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