The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has warned all councils in England of their legal duties over children who are out of education.
It follows a case where Leeds City Council left a young girl without proper education for nine months.
Leeds City Hall: the local council did not have proper processes in place to provide a suitable alternative provision for children and young people who are missing education
At the age of 10, the girl had started refusing to go to her primary school because of anxiety. The school asked her mother to take her home because she was suffering so much distress.
Girl had little education
Over the next nine months, the girl had little education. At one point, her mother had to fund an alternative education placement.
The girl eventually started engaging with Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). The organisation suggested she had sensory processing difficulties and recommended gathering information for diagnostic tests.
The girl’s mother lodged a complaint with the Ombudsman, who carried out an investigation.
Ombudsman found council’s failure led to ‘drifting’
The Ombudsman found the council failed to have a policy in place for children missing education because of ill health. This lack of policy led to the girl’s situation ‘drifting’.
The council also failed to maintain oversight of the targeted support clusters. These are local groups that oversee the council’s duties to children who are out of education. This meant the council was not informed at the earliest stage the girl was not attending school.
Michael King is the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman. He said: “Councils have a legal duty to provide suitable alternative provision for children and young people who are missing education for whatever reason.
“In this case, Leeds City Council did not have the proper processes in place, and the lack of a policy resulted in a young girl missing nine months of formal education. Instead of receiving an alternative at the earliest possible time, her case was left to drift.
“I welcome Leeds City Council’s commitment to agreeing to my recommendations and hope the processes it will put in place will ensure other children will not be disadvantaged in a similar way in future.”
Role to remedy injustice and share learning
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman’s role is to remedy injustice and share learning from investigations to help improve public, and adult social care, services. In this case, the council has agreed to pay the mother £1,300 to cover the cost of her daughter’s education over the period.
The council will also pay the mother £1,400 for failing to assess her daughter’s needs or provide education between May 2018 and October 2018. It will pay a further £200 for the time and trouble of bringing the complaint to the Ombudsman.
The Ombudsman has the power to make recommendations to improve processes for the wider public. In this case, the council has agreed to review the way it oversees services for children and young people out of school. It has also agreed to provide training and guidance to staff, schools and services.
In addition, the council will create a policy for children missing education for medical needs. A further agreement is that it will review the educational provision in place for children who have not attended school for more than 15 days.
Related:
- Ombudsman slams mental health care
- Ombudsman slams council’s behaviour
- Councils warned not to delay EHC plans
- Parents urged to fight for therapy
Published: 22 August 2019
