Bedford council ordered to pay £750 to mum for failing child over education health and care plan

This follows an investigation by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGO) into a complaint about a child’s Education Health and Care (EHC) needs assessment.

The child’s mother said the borough council failed when carrying out her daughter’s assessment and in “not supporting her when she was out of school”.

The Ombudsman found fault with the borough council’s delays in deciding whether to issue an Education Health and Care Plan and in issuing a final plan.

This, it said, caused injustice to the mother and daughter, and there was also fault found with the council’s record keeping.

A Bedford Borough Council spokesperson said: “Receiving an upheld decision from the Ombudsman sends a powerful message that there are things we must do to improve the services that we offer.

“As noted in the Ombudsman report the council has now reviewed the way in which the information is filed and stored as part of the EHC needs assessment process.

“New folders have been set up within the council’s electronic filing system which enables parents’ supporting evidence to be separated out from the evidence received from schools and other professionals.

“Staff training has been developed to ensure that all members of the SEND team understand the filing system.

“The LGO noted that this is commendable as it shows the council’s willingness to learn from its mistakes and improve its services.

“We will always endeavour to use these decisions to learn and ensure we do things better in future,” they said.

The LGO did not find fault within the actions of the council’s education welfare officer and for not providing education to the daughter when she was out of school.

The council agreed to apologise to them both, make the payment (£750) to recognise their distress, and issue the daughter’s final Education Health and Care Plan.