Manchester Council ordered to review alternative education policy
Neil Puffett
Monday, August 23, 2021
The way alternative education in Manchester is provided will be reviewed after the local government and social care ombudsman raised concerns about the treatment of a boy with learning and behavioural difficulties.
A report published by the ombudsman found problems in how the council handled the case of the boy who stopped attend his mainstream school since April 2019 because he was medically unfit due to suffering from anxiety.
His grandmother, who has parental responsibility for him, said the boy was being bullied and his health and special educational needs were not being met.
The council failed to tell her a place was available in her preferred school, which specialised in children with emotional and mental health difficulties. Instead the council waited until it had received details of a second school – which specialised in education for children with autistic spectrum conditions – and named the second school in the the boy's education, health and care (EHC) plan.
The ombudsman found that the council should have provided alternative education from the end of April, when the boy’s GP confirmed he was medically not fit to attend his school, until it named a special school in his final EHC plan in mid-August 2019.
It also found fault with the way the council communicated with the boy’s grandmother as, by the time she disputed the provision in the boy’s EHC plan at a special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) tribunal, her preferred school, referred to as school D in the ombudsman's report, no longer had a place available.
"Our view is that the council was at fault in the way it managed the review process, it failed to provide [the grandmother] with essential information about the availability of a place at school D, she was not told that the council proposed to amend [the boy's] and there was also avoidable delay in issuing a draft and final amended EHC plan," the report states.
"The council’s faults have meant that [the grandmother] was not made aware of the possible school options for [the boy], at a key time, and there was also a delay in her being able to appeal to the SEND tribunal to resolve this issue."
Manchester Council has agreed to review its alternative education policy and review the cases of pupils out of education between April 2019 and the start of the first national lockdown in March last year, to ensure other children have not been similarly affected by the issues in the case.
It has also has agreed to apologise to the grandmother and pay her £1,000 for the additional pressures placed on her by its faults and a further £250 for her time and trouble in pursuing the matter, as well as £1,800 for her grandson’s educational benefit for the three months when he was without education.
Michael King, local government and social care ombudsman, said: “At the heart of this case is a grandmother caused unnecessary distress by the council’s poor practice. It decided her grandson’s mainstream school was suitable, despite all evidence from healthcare professionals that it was not. When it did recognise the school was not suitable, it still maintained it was suitable until it found an alternative.
“This is yet another case of councils failing to provide alternative education for children who are out of school through no choice of their own. That we are upholding more than four out of five investigations in similar circumstances, points to serious systemic problems affecting some of the most vulnerable children.
“I welcome the council’s acceptance of my recommendations and hope the changes it now will make will ensure the city’s children receive the education they are entitled to.”
Manchester Council said that its former SEN service has been disbanded, and a new management structure introduced to improve its procedures and reduce delay and drift in its EHC planning process.
It said it has also introduced new home tuition services for pupils unable to attend school for medical reasons.
