A dad has been handed over £5,000 in compensation after a council failed to provide “suitable education” for his son. A report by the Local Government Ombudsman revealed how the child, who has special educational needs, missed an entire academic year as he approached secondary school age.
The Ombudsman said the council failed to provide the required tuition after the pupil left two schools in quick succession, because they were unable to cater for him. The local authority had accepted a degree of fault over the case, but was told to nearly double its cash offer to the boy’s father by way of apology.
The report told how the then Year 5 pupil had left one primary school in October 2020, after it said it could no longer accommodate his needs. He then joined another school in February 2021, but had been given only three hours of online home education a week by the council in the meantime, reports LeedsLive.
Leeds City Council was criticised for this by the Ombudsman and told it should have offered more during those four months. The boy then left his new school in October 2021, after they too said they couldn’t meet his needs. As a result, his father tried to secure him a place at a private school, which it was felt would be more suitable, but it did not have a place for him at that time.
The Ombudsman said that in the nine months that followed, the boy did not receive “any education at all”, which it said was a failure on the council’s part. The report said: “This was in what should have been (his) year 6; a key transition period between primary and secondary school.
“Given that (the pupil) had already missed out on education during 2020 and 2021, this lack of education caused a considerable additional injustice. (The pupil) also had special educational needs meaning he needed additional support to attain the achievements of his peers, and so the lost education is likely to have had a greater impact.”
The council initially offered the boy’s family £2,650 in recognition of the faults and for what was described as poor complaint handling and communication. However, the Ombudsman has said the family should be paid total of £5,200 to cover the lost education and the “frustration, time and trouble”, the family suffered in chasing up their complaint.
In response, a Leeds City Council spokesperson said: “We are committed to giving every child the best opportunity to achieve their full learning potential. We are already taking action to ensure reviews of education, health and care plans (EHC) plans for children who are not regularly attending school are held without delay, and to ensure children have a dedicated named officer responsible for all aspects of EHC planning review and provision.”
