Ombudsman criticises Haringey council over support for boy with SEN

The ombudsman ruled that the delay amounted to maladministration causing injustice and ordered the council to review its SEN assessment procedures.

The 2001 SEN Code of Practice says councils must deal with a request for a statement within 26 weeks.

But the ombudsman Jane Martin found a raft of delays at multiple stages in the boy’s application for a statement.

For example, the council failed to secure an appointment with an educational psychologist for the boy, and neglected to tell the mother of its decisions about support for her child.

The delays meant that the mother was forced to pay school fees of £994, which the council has been ordered to reimburse. The council was also ordered to pay the mother £200 for delays in making a laptop available to the child.

A spokeswoman for the London Borough of Haringey said that the council accepts the findings of the ombudsman and has apologised to the child and their family.

“We have acted on the recommendations of the ombudsman and have reviewed our procedures for carrying out assessments for children with special educational needs so that in future they are carried out more expediently,” she added.

Last month, the Local Government Ombudsman’s annual report revealed that for the second year running complaints about children’s services and education formed the largest proportion of its caseload.

In total 38 per cent of all grievances brought to the ombudsman during 2011/12 involved education and children’s services.

In one of the worst cases a child with learning difficulties missed a year of school and nine months of support because of a failure by two councils to work together.