Gloucestershire County Council failed to provide adequate education to a boy with special educational needs while he was out of school.

Gloucestershire County Council failed to provide adequate education to a boy with special educational needs while he was out of school, finds Local Government Ombudsman, Tony Redmond. In his report, issued today (18 August 2010) he says the Council’s failings meant that “…for at least four months, [the boy] received less than 50 per cent of the education which he was reasonably entitled to receive.”

‘Ms Clarke’ (real names are not given for legal reasons) complained that the Council failed to provide sufficient education for her son, ‘Michael’, after she had withdrawn him from school. In particular, that the Council named a school on his statement of special educational needs that was unable to accommodate him, and that the home tuition he received was insufficient to meet his needs. Ms Clarke says that she had to take time off work while Michael was educated at home and lost income as a result.

“The Council should have sought to ensure such full-time tuition was in place for Michael from 1 February, and I do not accept that it was Ms Clarke’s responsibility to have to request this”, says the Ombudsman, adding “… it is difficult for me to see that Ms Clarke had any alternative but to stay off work for this time with the consequent loss of earnings...”

The Ombudsman criticises the Council for its failure to make adequate provision for Michael for four months. He considers that, earlier, Ms Clarke had alternatives available to her, but for these four months she had no viable alternative other than to stay off work to care for Michael while he received part-time home tuition. The Council had named a school on a statement that he could not attend and failed to tell Ms Clarke when it abandoned seeking a placement at that school. It failed to make adequate full-time provision in the interim while another school placement was identified.

The Ombudsman says: “In these circumstances the onus was on the Council to find some way to deliver education provision to Michael so as to meet its obligations under the 1996 Education Act.”

The Ombudsman finds maladministration causing injustice and recommends that the Council should:

• apologise to Ms Clarke;
• pay Ms Clarke £500 for distress, time and trouble, and £1,000 for loss of Michael’s educational provision, which the Council has agreed to pay;
• pay Ms Clarke £5,000 for loss of earnings; and
• review its policy for provision of full-time tuition for pupils out of school for reasons other than exclusion or illness.

Report ref no 08 005 914

Article date: 18 August 2010