East Sussex County Council To Pay £1k In Compensation For Delay In Support For Autistic Pupil

East Sussex County Council has been told to pay compensation for a delay in providing educational support for a girl with autism.

Following a report from the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO), the county council has been told to make a £1,000 “symbolic payment” to acknowledge the impact this delay had on the family involved. 

The case revolves around a secondary school student with autism, who is referred to as G in the ombudsman’s report. 

The council first became aware of G in November 2022, after her school asked the authority for its help. At the time, G, a Year 7 pupil, was finding it increasingly difficult to come to school and had developed extreme anxiety at being away from her mother.

These difficulties resulted in G not returning to her school after the 2022/23 Christmas holiday. This prompted G’s mother, referred to as Mrs M, to ask the council to arrange alternative tuition.

According to the ombudsman, the council considered Mrs M’s request but decided not to arrange alternative tuition, opting to see whether the support from its Communication, Learning and Autism Support Service could result in G returning to school.

Two weeks later, Mrs M again asked the council to arrange alternative tuition. G had not returned to education and Mrs M was concerned G’s needs were not being met by the school.

Following this, the council decided then to refer G’s case to a multi-professional meeting to establish what support she needed to engage in education and reintegrate to school. The multi-professional meeting took place six weeks later. By this time, G had not attended school for 12 weeks.

After the meeting, G began to take part in “blended learning” — a form of remote learning — and the council later agreed to provide a learning mentor to support G during online lessons.

In their report the ombudsman said:

“There is much to commend in the council’s response to G’s absence from school. The council played an active role in coordinating efforts to try to secure G’s reintegration to school, and later in arrangements for G’s education out of school. 

“The council has kept G’s case under regular review, and has overseen increases in provision as her ability to participate increased.”

They added:

“However, I find there was a delay holding the multi-professionals meeting to decide the next steps when attempts to secure G’s return to school in January 2023 proved unsuccessful. 

“G had not attended school for 12 weeks before the meeting. It was six weeks from Mrs M’s February 2023 request for support before the meeting took place. With input from the council, G began to make progress. 

“It is likely this would have happened sooner if the meeting had taken place earlier. For this reason, we say the delay caused injustice.”

After coming to this conclusion, the ombudsman told the council to apologise to Mrs M and G for the delay and to offer a symbolic payment of £1,000. The ombudsman said this payment was to acknowledge both the impact on the family and the support Mrs M provided before the council agreed to provide a learning mentor.

An East Sussex County Council spokesperson said:

“We are pleased the ombudsman has found no fault with our process in response to G’s absence from school. However, we accept the findings of the ombudsman with regards to the delay in holding the multi-professionals meeting to decide the next steps to support G’s access to education, and we have apologised to Mrs M and G for this delay.

“All the actions recommended have been taken and the deadlines given by the LGSCO have been met.”