Summary: the Council’s initial response when Mrs P asked for help because her son, B, was unable to attend school was good. There were delays arranging alternative provision and B only received the core offer from the Council’s medical needs tuition service while Mrs P funded additional tuition. The Council has changed its procedures and has agreed a symbolic remedy for the injustice caused.

The complaint

1. Mrs P complains the Council failed to offer support when she asked for help in March 2023 and did not provide her son, B, with suitable alternative education when he was unable to attend school. She complains B now receives only 15 hours of tuition per week, and only in three subjects.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. If there has been fault which has caused injustice we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
3. Once we are satisfied with an organisation’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)
4. Under our information sharing agreement, we will share this decision with the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted).

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

5. I have considered information provided by Mrs P and the Council. I have invited Mrs P and the Council to comment on my draft decision.

Back to top

What I found

6. Mrs P made a formal complaint to the Council on 26 February 2024. She complained B had missed more than 15 days of school due to anxiety and the Council had not made alternative arrangements for his education.
7. The Council responded on 19 March 2024. The Council set out the support that had been offered by B’s school and the school’s plans for the immediate future. The Council said that if Mrs P was unhappy with the level of support, she should complain to the school.
8. Unhappy with the Council’s response, Mrs P asked the Council to respond at the second stage of its complaints process. B had been unable to engage with the support proposed by his school. The Council had offered support from its Medical Needs Tuition Service, but Mrs P was concerned the service did not provide all the subjects B hoped to take for his GCSEs. Mrs P asked the Council to provide a bespoke package of online learning.
9. The Council responded on 1 May 2024. The Council said the Medical Needs Tuition Service would work with B’s school to ensure that, as far as possible, the provision would meet B’s needs. The Council said it would only consider the online learning package Mrs P requested if it was not possible to meet B’s needs in school.
10. Unhappy with the Council’s response, Mrs P complained to us.

Education for children who do not attend school

11. Parents, schools and councils all have responsibilities to ensure children receive a suitable education.
12. The Council has a duty, outlined below, to arrange suitable education for children who would not otherwise receive suitable education. The Council is – in effect – a “safety net”.
13. The Education Act 1996 says every council shall “make arrangements for the provision of suitable education at school or otherwise than at school for those children of compulsory school age who, by reason of illness, exclusion from school or otherwise, may not for any period receive suitable education unless such arrangements are made for them.” (Education Act 1996, section 19(1))
14. The education provided by the Council must be full-time unless the Council determines that full-time education would not be in the child’s best interests for reasons of the child’s physical or mental health. (Education Act 1996, section 3A and 3AA)
15. The Government has issued statutory guidance which Councils must follow unless they have good reason. (Ensuring a good education for children who cannot attend school because of health needs, issued by the Department for Education in January 2013)
16. Government guidance says Councils must work closely with schools to identify children who need the Council to make alternative arrangements for their education. Councils must consider the individual circumstances of each particular child and be able to demonstrate how they made their decisions.
17. The guidance says that a temporary timetable may be a legitimate adjustment by a school to meet the needs of a child with mental health issues impacting their attendance, but it should have an end point and regular reviews. There is an expectation the Council will need to act if a pupil has been absent from school for 15 days or more.

Consideration

18. I can only investigate the actions of the Council, not B’s school. I made enquiries to find out what the Council did when Mrs P asked for help.
19. Mrs P contacted the Council to ask for help in March 2023. Her enquiry was passed to the school attendance team and an officer contacted Mrs P and the school straight away. The school had a plan, and the Council outlined the ‘next steps’ should the school’s plan not work. There is no fault here.
20. Mrs P contacted the Council six weeks after her initial enquiry to report her concerns about the lack of progress with the school’s plan. B had not attended school for 9 weeks, and Mrs P told the Council the school had not set a date to review its plan. This time, the Council’s response was not so good. The Council spoke to Mrs P but does not appear to have followed up her concerns with the school. This is fault.
21. In its response to my enquiries, the Council acknowledged there had been shortcomings in its approach at the time. It said the Council did not record a formal decision about whether it was necessary to make alternative arrangements for a child’s education. The Council explained that it was piloting a new approach where an ‘extended absence panel’ will consider and record decisions in cases like B’s. I welcome this development.
22. B’s school made a referral to the Council’s pupil tuition team (PTT) at the end of September 2023. The support provided by the PTT appears to have helped.
23. Following a short intervention by the PTT, the Council appears to have ‘handed back the reins’ to B’s school. The Council said the school produced a reintegration plan and offered a part-time timetable.
24. There is no fault here, although the support provided by the PTT might have been provided sooner if the Council had followed up Mrs P’s concerns in April 2023.
25. The school’s reintegration plan was, however, unsuccessful. The school made a referral to the Council’s medical needs tuition service in April 2024.
26. By this time, more than a term and a half had passed since the intervention by the Council’s PTT and B had still not returned to full-time education. In response to my enquiries, the Council acknowledged more oversight of B’s attendance could have been in place. Had this been the case, the Council might have involved the medical needs tuition service sooner.
27. I understand B engaged well with the support offered by the Medical Needs Tuition Service, but Mrs P is concerned the service does not provide the subjects B wishes to study and is only for 15 hours per week.
28. Government guidance says alternative education should be full-time and of a comparable standard to school education.
29. In response to my enquiries, Council explained that its medical needs teaching service focuses on core subjects and functional skills in line with DfE guidance that there should be a focus on securing good academic attainment in English, Maths and Science.
30. The Council said that in order to maintain small group sizes, and in the face of increasing demand, it offered tuition on mornings or afternoons.
31. However, the Council said each child has an individual plan which is regularly reviewed. Where a child is able to access more than the morning or afternoon sessions, additional provision from their home school, either via online learning or other personalised packages of support, can be arranged.
32. Mrs P told me that B’s school said it did not have funds to arrange additional online tuition for B, so she paid for tuition in other subjects herself. It appears the Council’s individual planning and reviews did not work in B’s case.

Conclusions

33. There is much to commend in the Council’s response to B’s absence from school and Mrs P’s subsequent complaint. But there are also gaps.
34. The Council responded quickly to Mrs P’s initial concerns in March 2023, and the pupil tuition team (PTT) provided a successful intervention in October 2023.
35. However, the Council does not appear to have maintained an oversight of B’s education once Mrs P raised concerns. The Council appears to have relied on B’s school to make referrals.
36. While Government guidance expects councils and schools to work together, councils must consider the individual circumstances of each particular child and be able to demonstrate how they made their decisions. The Council has acknowledged the need for improvements in making and recording its decisions, and in oversight of cases.
37. Had the Council maintained better oversight, it is possible it would have provided support for B sooner: in April 2023 when Mrs P reported he had not attended school for 9 weeks, and when the school’s reintegration plan following the intervention by the PTT proved unsuccessful. The result was significant periods when B was without suitable full-time education. It is likely the Council should have stepped in sooner to arrange suitable education.
38. When the Council arranged medical needs tuition, it appears B received only 15 hours of tuition, not the extended package described by the Council.

Back to top

Agreed action

39. Where we find fault, we consider the impact on the complainant. We refer to this as the injustice. We may recommend a remedy for injustice that is the result of fault by the Council.
40. We have published guidance to explain how we recommend remedies for people who have suffered injustice as a result of fault by a council. Our primary aim is to put people back in the position they would have been in if the fault by the Council had not occurred. When this is not possible, as in the case of Mrs P and B, we may recommend the Council makes a symbolic payment.
41. Within six weeks of my final decision, I recommended the Council:
• apologises for the faults I have identified;
• offers a symbolic payment of £1,000 to acknowledge the impact of the delays arranging alternative provision; and
• refunds expenses Mrs P incurred arranging additional tuition following the referral to the medical needs service (Mrs P to provide invoices or receipts).
42. The Council accepted my recommendations. The Council should provide evidence it has complied with the above actions.
43. The Council should pay for the additional tuition arranged by Mrs P for as long as it is needed, or until it is able to arrange an alternative personalised package of support.
44. We can also make recommendations to ensure similar faults do not happen in the future. The Council has described the changes it has made or intends to make, so I will not make further recommendations.

Back to top

Final decision

45. I have completed my investigation as the Council accepted my recommendations.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman