| SPOTLIGHT |
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) has asked the London Borough of Redbridge to audit all children who receive Special Educational Needs provision at a borough school after the council left a boy without the support he needed for more than two years.
Redbridge has been asked to pay almost £10,000 in compensation to the family, following the investigation.
The boy attends a special school, has autism and a severe form of epilepsy, and needs help with speech and language (SALT), occupational therapy, and physiotherapy. By the time he was due to start secondary school in 2015 he was too ill to attend.
But Redbridge did not carry out any assessments to determine whether he could access its home tuition service, the LGSCO said. As a result, he did not return to school for a full year, having not received any education or Special Needs provision in the preceding 12 months.
The boy's mother queried what Special Educational Needs (SEN) provision her son was receiving at school. A breakdown provided by the school showed no evidence he was receiving either his occupational therapy or SALT provision. His mother then started to pay for a weekly physiotherapy session with a different provider.
Following a complaint from the mother, the Ombudsman found the council did not put in place adequate alternate provision for the boy and did not review his Statement of SEN. It also took 27 weeks too long to transfer the boy's statement to an Education Health and Care (EHC) Plan. This was not completed until May 2018 and meant the council missed out on the chance to meet the boy's needs and identify and implement alternative provision.
In total, the boy missed out on his full SEN provision for 16 months after returning to school, on top of the provision he missed out on while unable to attend. It also denied the boy's family the right to appeal the provision that was put in place.
Michael King, Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, said: "Councils have a duty to meet the special educational provisions laid out in Statements and EHC Plans, but in this case the boy missed out on the therapies and support he needed for 16 months, and his mother felt forced to pay for services the council should have ensured were provided.
"I now urge Redbridge council to take on board the recommendations in my report and consider how they might implement them to improve services for children with Special Educational Needs in the borough."
Following its investigation, the LGSCO has recommended the council apologise to the boy and his family and pay £4,000 for his lost education and SEN provision for the 2015/16 school year.
A further £2,400 should be paid to the mother, according to the Ombudsman, to cover the cost of the boy's physiotherapy sessions she arranged and paid for, on top of an extra £3,200 for the boy's lost SEN provision from when he returned to school and £200 for the distress and time and trouble she was caused.
The Ombudsman also called for internal changes at Redbridge in regard to assessing children. This includes a reminder to staff that the council has a duty to assess children who are out of education due to poor health and to provide a suitable alternative education.
Redbridge has also been asked to complete an audit of all the children that receive SEN support at the boy's school, to ensure this provision is being met. If it finds that it is not, it should put an action plan in place to address this. Those affected should also be told about the council's complaints procedure.
Redbridge Council has been contacted for a statement.
Adam Carey
