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Child with special needs missed months of education because of “council bureaucracy”, Ombudsman finds

An investigation by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has revealed that a child with special educational needs missed months of education, despite Trafford Council identifying a suitable tutor within a fortnight of them leaving mainstream school.

The child, who has an Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan, was no longer able to attend their mainstream school in September 2023.

The school found a tutor within two weeks, and within two months the council found two special schools with places “immediately available”.

However, the Ombudsman’s investigation found that instead of putting arrangements in place as soon as it could, the council delayed looking at the child’s case at funding panel meetings for “months”.

Further, the report observed that when the council did tackle the case, it only looked at funding for the tutor, despite the school placement being available immediately.

The Ombudsman said: “The council waited another month to look at the placement option but then decided to investigate more local options, including a special class at a mainstream school which had already been unsuccessful.”

The child eventually started at the special school in April 2024.

To remedy the injustice caused, the Ombudsman recommended the council to:

  • apologise to the mother and child;
  • pay them £3,600 for the missed education, and a further £750 for the “significant and avoidable” distress;
  • review its current arrangements for making decisions about EHC assessments and plans, to ensure it can make decisions within the statutory timescales;
  • ensure it records “sufficient detail” to demonstrate its decision making in individual cases.

According to the watchdog, the council has agreed to the recommendations.

Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, Amerdeep Somal said: “We regularly make findings of service failure in cases about EHC plans, to acknowledge where matters outside a council's control have largely prevented it from meeting its statutory duty. The national shortage of educational psychologists, for example, causes delays to EHC needs assessments.

“But in this case the system could have worked as designed. The child should have missed, at most, two weeks of education after the emergency review. Instead, the council's internal bureaucracy added months of avoidable delay.

“The council has told me it is already taking steps to improve the timeliness of its decision making for children who are unable to attend school, and I welcome this proactive response.

“I hope the further recommendations I have made will ensure other children’s cases are dealt with as swiftly as possible.”

Trafford Council has been approached for comment.

Lottie Winson