A mother has received £500 compensation after Brighton and Hove City Council failed to act early enough to provide her daughter with specialist education.
The payout was ordered after the mother – referred to only as Mrs B – complained to the Local Government Ombudsman.
The ombudsman said that the council had failed to follow the special educational needs (SEN) code of practice and failed to provide education for her daughter from February 2022.
Mrs B also complained that the council had delayed considering her stage two complaint in February last year, with the council not responding until June.
She said that the council’s failures resulted in her daughter missing education and therapeutic input which caused Mrs B and her husband significant distress and loss of income.
Mrs B’s daughter went to a mainstream primary school on a part-time timetable but stopped attending in February 2022 because of anxiety.
A home tutor was unsuccessful and Mrs B’s child did not have an education, health and care plan (ECHP) until August 2022. It was the subject of an appeal.
Her daughter went to a new mainstream primary school in September 2022 but stopped attending because of anxiety by the end of the month.
After a review of the girl’s education, health and care plan, Mrs B’s daughter was placed in an alternative provision or specialist school from December 2022.
In January last year, Mrs B wrote to the council to say that proposed changes to the education, health and care plan before a tribunal were unlawful and she would complain.
The council’s offer of a school place was subject to an appeal held earlier this year. The details are not included in the ombudsman’s report.
But the report did say that the ombudsman did not consider the council to have failed to provide education as a school was named on the child’s plan.
The Ombudsman also said that there was no evidence that the council had considered putting alternative provisions into place or worked with a school to put such measures in place until December 2022.
The ombudsman said: Failure to consider putting in place alternative provision is a fault.
Given the difficulties Mrs B’s daughter had accessing alternative provision in March 2022, I do not consider it likely, on the balance of probability, if the council had offered alternative provision Mrs B’s daughter would have been able to access it, at least at first.
I consider though Mrs B has suffered an injustice as she is left with some uncertainty about whether the situation could have been different if the council had acted earlier.
As a remedy for that, I recommend the council apologise to Mrs B and pay her £500.
I also recommend the council remind officers dealing with children who are not attending school of the need to consider whether alternative provision is appropriate.
The ombudsman also found that the four-month delay in responding to Mrs B’s complaint was a fault because there seemed no reason why the council could not have complied with its complaint timescales.
