Hounslow Council Fined for Failing Special Needs Child
Took over a year to find Year 10 pupil a school place
Hounslow House
September 12, 2023
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman found Hounslow Council at fault for a litany of failures that resulted in a child with special needs missing out on an almost full year of education. He borough failed in its duty to find a school spot for a Year 10 pupil after she moved to the UK in November 2021 with them only receiving a school place in the middle of June 2023.
The council was found to be slow to act in finding the pupil, who had specific educational needs, a school spot – much to the distress of their family. The young person’s dad made a series of complaints to the council over the more than a year and a half he was left waiting for local authorities to find a place resulting in the family being paid £8,500 in total compensation.
As part of assessing a student’s special educational needs, councils will normally conduct an evaluation known as an Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment (EHCNA) however the ombudsman found this was delayed, meaning that the child was waiting for six months for it to be finalised from when a school place had first been requested.
During this time child did not receive any education at all. When the assessment was finally completed it said she had ‘significant learning needs and difficulties in the areas of language, social communication, play, and independent living skills’. The Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan said that she needed to attend a special school and laid out a plan.
This included her being provided with a full time, personalised curriculum with a focus on preparing for adulthood, help in interacting with classmates and support to eat, dress and use the toilet. It was decided a full assessment of her speech and language needs should take place over 12 weeks as well.
In the same month as the plan was finalised, Hounslow Council consulted eight schools all within the borough, opting to not look outside the borough. With “school A” saying it could offer a place subject to assessment of the child’s needs. The other schools did not offer her a place.
However, the school eventually concluded that it could not provide what the girl required. The council then arranged tutoring at home for ten hours a week for the student in June.
The ombudsman states the council agreed that this caused difficulties for the family and found provisions laid out in the council’s own plan were not being followed. At the time the child’s father complained to the council’s casework that his daughter had not received any physical or language therapy and had still not been assigned a place at school after more than a year of waiting.
The tutoring also stopped for the summer in July and was not renewed until November 2022 meaning that the child had no education for half a term of school. During this time, the Ombudsman found that the council case worker was not responding to the father’s complaints.
He finally got a response when he made a complaint to the council’s feedback service. The council responded to the child’s father in November 2022. It upheld his complaint and recognised an apology was “insufficient”, there was a breakdown in ensuring his daughter’s tuition was rebooked for September and it had revised its process.
The council also agreed to complete another search for a school placement for her, as well as look for a post-16 placement and then discuss increasing the girl’s hours of tuition for the rest of the academic year.
The council consulted schools again in February 2023, eventually finding a school with the capacity to support the special needs of the girl. She started school in June 2023.
The Ombudsman found a number of faults with the council’s conduct. One of the severe faults was the council’s failure to do more than one round of school consultations for almost a year. It was decided to order the council to issue compensation.
Firstly, they told Hounslow Council to issue an apology to the family. They also told the council to pay £4,000 to recognise the 20 academic weeks when the school child had no education from November 2021 to May 2022. This is calculated at £2,400 per term/£200 per week according to Ombudsman guidance.
The Ombudsman was ordered to pay £1,200 to recognise the half a term the daughter received no tuition or support at all between September and October 2022.
A further £3,000 was required by the Ombudsman to recognise the two and a half terms between November 2022 and June 2023 when the girl did not receive the full support laid out in her EHC plan. The council also had to pay the family a symbolic amount of £300 to recognise the avoidable distress and frustration it caused by failing to communicate and to recognise the child’s father’s complaint at the earliest opportunity.
Rory Bennett - Local Democracy Reporter