Central Beds Council pays mum £200 over failure to fully provide special needs support for child

The child’s mother complained to Central Bedfordshire Council about the provision of an education, health and care plan (EHCP), said a local government and social care ombudsman’s report.

“Her complaint accused CBC of failing to ensure her child received the support set out in an EHCP. A tribunal had decided what the EHCP should say in January this year.

“She claimed the school wasn’t providing what was in the EHCP and said it wouldn’t. CBC replied to her complaint in February, saying its educational psychologist would meet with the school to sort out the support.

“The council said the school had been providing some of the support. It explained that the child’s education marks showed significant progress. CBC also offered £200 for the reduced support to that point.”

The council has a duty to make sure the child or young person receives the special educational provision set out in section F of an EHCP, explained the report.

“The courts have said that the duty to arrange this provision is owed personally to the child and is non-delegable. This means that if a council asks another organisation to make the provision and it fails to do so, the local authority remains liable.

“We accept it isn’t practical for councils to keep a ‘watching brief’ on whether schools and others are providing all the special educational provision in section F for every pupil with an EHCP.

“But we consider councils should be in a position to show appropriate oversight in gathering information to fulfil their legal duty. As a minimum, we expect them to have systems in place to:

• check the special educational provision is in place when a new or amended EHCP is issued, or there’s a change in educational placement;
• check the provision at least annually during the EHCP review process;
• and quickly investigate and act on complaints or concerns raised, if the provision isn’t in place at any time.

“Here, CBC has looked quickly into the mother’s allegations and arranged action,” added the report. “It’s unlikely our investigation could achieve more than the local authority’s complaint inquiries.”