Payout for Surrey child's hour of education a week

The ombudsman said the council should pay the boy £4,500

A student who received an hour of education per week for two terms has been given a £4,500 payout from Surrey County Council.

The council must also provide an action plan setting out how it will avoid similar failures and deliver special educational needs support to children who cannot go to school.

A report by the local government ombudsman said the council was at fault for failing to deliver suitable education and special educational needs support for the boy while he had no school to go to.

Surrey County Council's leader Tim Oliver said the council accepted the findings and sincerely apologised for any distress caused.

According to the report, the boy had been expelled from his school in November 2022 but it took until September 2023 for the council to find him a full-time replacement.

He should have also been receiving personalised speech and language therapy programmes, devised by a therapist and delivered by his school.

The boy was referred to the council's short-term home education service, as an interim measure, which began in January 2023, reported the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The social care and education watchdog said this was “nowhere near the full-time education the council should have delivered”.

Mr Oliver said: “I am aware that the council has not always got things right for all families and that the support and service that some children with additional needs and disabilities and their families receive is not always of the standard that we would expect, and I am sorry about that."

He said the council was "working hard" to improve services, and that the authority's most recent Ofsted inspection noted progress was underway for children with special education needs and disabilities.

“We are resolute in our ambition to continue to improve services and outcomes for children and young people with additional needs and disabilities so that they are happy, healthy, safe and confident about their future,” he added.