Pay out for mum over son’s school place failure

A COUNCIL has paid out nearly £1,000 to the mother of a child with special needs after an Ombudsman ruled it had delayed fulfilling its duty of providing alternative education provision.

The mother, ‘Ms D’, complained that Trafford council failed to provide her son, E, with full-time education when he stopped attending school.

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman said the council’s failures caused Ms D ‘distress, frustration and upset’ and had a ‘detrimental impact’ on E and the wider family. Their report underlines that local authorities have a duty under the Education Act 1996 to make arrangements for the provision of suitable education for children who, because of illness or other reasons, cannot attend school.

The Ombudsman said: “The Education Act says education provided by a council must be fulltime unless they determine it would not be in the child’s best interests.”

They said they had read a copy of the report from D’s home tuition provider. It said that E struggled to process lengthy instructions and needed regular breaks. This evidence shows it is unlikely E could have coped with a full-time education and therefore I do not consider the council was at fault for providing him with a part-time education,” they added.

The Ombudsman ordered the council to apologise to Ms D and pay her £150 for the frustration, distress and upset, in addition to £700 to remedy E’s missed education from February to May 2023.

By April 23 2024, the council has agreed to write to relevant members of staff to ensure they are aware of their duties to arrange alternative provision for children who are unable to attend school as quickly as possible with ‘minimal delay’.