Ombudsman criticises council over repeated failures to support boy with disabilities
Joe Lepper
Thursday, February 16, 2023
A boy with disabilities was denied proper education and therapeutic care for 18 months due to a raft of errors by Surrey County Council, including failing to act on an order to improve his support.
The findings have emerged in a report by Local Government and Social Care ombudsman Michael King following his investigation into the boy’s case.
This was the second time he had been asked by his family to investigate failures to support the boy.
The first complaint focused on the council’s failure to provide the boy with 15 hours of tutoring a week, along with speech and language support and occupational therapy, as part of his education, health and care (EHC) plan.
Between September 2020 and January 2021, he received just four hours of tutor time a week, rising to only six a month later.
A special education needs and disabilities (SEND) tribunal in April 2021 ordered the council to increase tutoring to 25 hours a week as well as provide weekly therapy, including animal therapy.
But this had still not been put in place by June that year. It was not until September 2021 that full speech and language therapy was in place. The boy had to wait until March 2022 for animal therapy to start, almost a year after the council was ordered by the tribunal to put this in place.
In addition, he was without occupational therapy for three months until March last year.
“After councils issue these plans we expect them to ensure all the provision included is in place – and if it is not, it should act to secure it without delay,” said King.
“In this case the boy missed out on a significant amount of tuition and therapies for a prolonged period, despite a previous investigation by us which found the son did not get education between 2018 and 2020. It is disappointing that the council did not learn from the issues raised in my first investigation.
“The council has accepted my recommendations to improve its processes and I hope the better oversight this will bring will ensure other children and young people in Surrey do not miss out on the education and therapy they are entitled to in the same way.”
Surrey County Council has agreed to pay the boy's family £7,400 for lost education and therapeutic support and for their “frustration and distress”.
It has also agreed to review how it monitors the delivery of support for children subject to EHC plans as well as how it investigates complaints.
King added that he is “concerned with the confusing way the council handled the mother’s complaints, at one stage taking 11 months to handle a complaint that should – according to its own policy – have taken a maximum of 30 days”.
“Surrey County Council take the findings very seriously and apologises for any distress the family experienced," said a council spokesperson.
