Private SEN assessments refunded by council

Parents are being reimbursed after having to get private tutoring

A county council has reimbursed a total of £26,475 to parents who used private educational psychologists due to a backlog.

Surrey County Council paid out to 27 families of children with special educational needs who had to go private between the 2023 summer term and May 2024.

This was due to a lack of qualified professionals able to create educational care plans, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The council said it was now operating at over 90% "timeliness" and able to meet demand.

In one case, the local government and social care ombudsman upheld that the authority refused to reimburse a mother who used a private educational psychologist in support of her son's education health and care needs assessment.

The ombudsman also upheld the council delayed making payments for her son's tutor and that its communications were poor, and further complaints about delays at Surrey County Council in completing needs assessments due to the national shortage of educational psychologists.

The ombudsman's office said it had since been satisfied with the steps being taken to resolve the issue.

Between the 2023 summer term and May 2024 Surrey County Council said it temporarily agreed to reimburse private reports due to its backlog.

'Cover the cost'

Clare Curran, cabinet member for children, families and lifelong learning, said she was not able to comment on any individual children, but the council accepted the findings from the report and apologised to the family affected.

A spokesperson for the council added: "Where we used the private educational psychologist report as the sole advice during that time at the parent/carer's request we would cover the cost.

"However, if we did not use it as the sole advice then we would not reimburse."

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