Council ordered to refund mum’s nursery charges
COUNCIL ‘DIDN’T DO ENOUGH’ TO RESOLVE THE COMPLAINT
NOTTINGHAMSHIRE County Council has been ordered to repay a mum for nursery charges she paid for nearly two years ago because it did not properly oversee a nursery’s charging policy.
The child should have received 30 hours a week free under the national free early education entitlement scheme, but the mum complained she was given no option but to pay for “consumables”, with the nursery not acting clearly or transparently on the matter.
The council was asked to investigate and identified problems with the way the nursery was charging parents and asked the organisation to amend its terms.
However, the local government and social care Ombudsman’s investigation into the mum’s complaint found the council’s own investigation did not do enough to get to the bottom of the problem or prevent the issues from reoccurring.
The council did not seek to resolve the matter for the mum, including getting the losses she suffered reimbursed, it found. As a result, the Ombudsman’s investigation concluded that the council should pay the mum a combined £200 for the trouble and distress felt.
It should also refund half the additional charges the mum has paid between January 2020 to the date her child left the nursery in February 2022.
Michael King, Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, said: “In this case, the council did not do enough to work with the mum and the nursery to resolve the case, and instead simply referred her complaint back to the nursery.
“It is the council’s duty to work with providers to ensure their invoices and receipts are clear, transparent and itemised. I now ask the council to consider my report at the highest level to ensure it learns from this complaint so other parents are not disadvantaged in a similar way.”
The county council has accepted the conclusion and recommendations of the report and acknowledged the failures.
Commenting on the report, Irene Kakoullis, Nottinghamshire County Council’s Group Manager, Early Childhood Services, said: “The council accepts the conclusions and recommendations of the Ombudsman report and acknowledges that there were failures. We are in contact with the complainant and will be apologising for the mistakes made as well as reimbursing the costs as recommended by the report.”
The report is due to be discussed fully at the end of the month.
The council acknowledges that there were failures.
Irene Kakoullis, Nottinghamshire County Council