Ombudsman raps council over SEN statement delay

The Local Government Ombudsman has criticised a London borough over unreasonable delays in issuing a statement of special educational needs for a boy with learning difficulties.

The boy’s mother had complained to the Ombudsman about the delay and the educational provision that was made by Haringey Council.

The local authority took more than a year to issue the statement, in part because it was seeking information from professionals.

However, the LGO said the cumulative delays meant the council had breached the national code of practice.

This says that the period of time between a request for assessment and the issue of the final statement should be normally be no longer than 26 weeks.

Haringey was also criticised for its failure to provide a laptop for the boy’s use, as required by his SEN statement.

The investigation by the Ombudsman, Dr Jane Martin, found that the mother was prevented from appealing to the Special Educational Needs & Disability Tribunal (‘SEND’) as soon as she should have been able to.

This was “likely to have delayed the naming of an independent residential special school in the child’s statement”.

In response to the LGO’s report, Haringey has agreed to pay the mother £994.60 to reimburse her for fees incurred in sending her son to the school named on his statement, plus £200 for the delay in making a laptop available.

It will also apologise to the child for the faults identified, and review its procedures for carrying out assessments for children with special educational needs.