A council has been directed to pay out \u00a36,400 after a child with special educational needs was left without a school place for almost a year. According to a report published by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, a place at a special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) school was requested for the child in January 2022 \u2013 after the family returned to the UK from abroad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The mother was told that in order to be considered for a place at a SEND school the child would need an \u2018education health and care plan\u2019 (EHCP). Initially, the application for an EHCP was dismissed by the county council after nine weeks \u2013 three weeks after the statutory time limit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Following the further submission of new evidence, the application was successful, stating that the child needed a specialist setting that caters for children with moderate learning difficulties. But the Ombudsman found that it wasn\u2019t completed quickly enough \u2013 falling eight weeks outside the 20-week deadline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As a result, the Ombudsman directed the county council to apologise for the delays to the child\u2019s mum and to pay her \u00a3400. But the Ombudsman also directed the local authority to pay out \u00a36,000 in recognition of the loss of educational provision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Ombudsman found that the council should have put in place alternative educational provisions for the child from February 2022 onwards. And allowing for school holidays, the Ombudsman directed the council to pay the family \u00a3600 per month to acknowledge the impact of a loss of 42 weeks of education \u2013 resulting in a further payment of \u00a36,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Commenting on the findings of the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, a spokesperson for Hertfordshire County Council apologised to the family and highlighted the \u201cunprecedented increase in requests for specialist provision\u201d being made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe take the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman\u2019s findings very seriously and where they find we have been at fault, we work hard to understand why that has happened, how we can put it right and how we can prevent it happening again,\u201d says a statement from the county council.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A council has been directed to pay out \u00a36,400 after a child with special educational needs was left without a school place for almost a year. According to a report published by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, a place at a special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) school was requested for the child…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uk"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n