Ombudsman tells Herts County Council to pay £2,800 to family after its failings left a five-year-old boy without proper education for a year and his mum could not work

Hertfordshire County Council (HCC) has been directed to pay £2,800 after leaving a boy with special needs without “proper educational provision”.

His mother complained to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO), saying her son had lost a year of education and that as a result she had not been able to work.

An investigation by the LGSCO highlighted delays and errors by the authority as it processed the child’s education, health and care plan (EHCP).

According to the watchdog’s report, the council took too long to complete a consultation with schools and to consider an EOTAS (Education Other Than at School) package.

It also found the council had failed to follow the process to amend the child’s EHCP without a review and that the boy was “without proper educational provision in accordance with his EHCP”.

The boy, aged four, started at a mainstream primary school in September 2022, a month after the council had agreed to assess him for an EHCP.

Within weeks he was withdrawn from the school, where the mother said there had been a “safeguarding incident”. The report says that according to the boy’s mum, the school then said it could not meet her child’s needs.

An EHCP was issued for the child in November – but it did not name a school. The parent’s pleas for the council to cite a specialist private nursery school on the boy’s EHCP were turned down, with the council later stating it was not registered as “an educational setting”.

At the end of April 2023 – two months after he turned five – the council’s funding panel agreed he needed a special school place. As part of the ongoing process, the mother also asked the council to consider EOTAS for her son.

At the end of June 2023, an amended EHCP for the boy was issued that named the school he had been withdrawn from the previous September.

His mother complained to the LGSCO that the council had refused to name her preferred setting on the EHCP and that it had taken too long to take the matter to a panel.

At the end of June, she also appealed against the EHCP because she did not agree with the school named or the provision set out.

Following an investigation, the office of the LGSCO found that the council was at fault.

According to its report just published, the council has already acknowledged that it was wrong when it failed to name a primary school on the initial EHCP issued in November 2022.

It has also acknowledged it should have handled the consultation with schools better and that it did not provide a suitable education to the child while he was not in school.

According to the report, the council offered to pay the mum £2,300 in recognition of the impact on her son and the time and trouble she was put to when the council failed to communicate properly with her. But the ombudsman’s report suggests this is increased to £2,800, which the council is reported to have agreed to.

A spokesman said HCC had apologised to the family. He pointed to the increased number of children with EHCPs and the investment the council was making in SEND school places and services.

“We are committed to working in partnership with young people, parents, carers and schools to ensure that all children with SEND and EHCPs in Hertfordshire receive the support they need and deserve.

“We take the LGSCO’s 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.

“There are more than 36,500 children and young people identified in Hertfordshire schools as having SEND. Most children and young people with additional needs do not require an EHCP to access the support they need, as these are for those with the most complex needs, but we have seen a 223% increase in children and young people with EHCPs since 2015.

“We know that we’ve struggled to keep up with that increase and that’s why SEND improvement is a key priority for both the county council and local NHS.

“We understand the issues faced by children, young people and their families in Hertfordshire and have already put in place a strong strategy to address this, including an additional ongoing £7m investment into statutory SEND services and creating 1,000 new SEND school places between 2018 and 2026.”