Cornwall Council 'failed' to provide education to child out of school

Cornwall Council failed to ensure a boy with mental health issues was educated between March and July 2019

Cornwall Council "failed" to ensure a child unable to go to school was being educated, a regulator has found.

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) argued the council lacked oversight of out of school education by outsourced services.

A formal complaint was made by the family of a secondary school student who went without education for months.

The boy was unable to attend school due to mental health problems, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The conclusions do not refer to education provision for children not in school because of the coronavirus pandemic, as the boy was out of school between March and July 2019.

'Contract out responsibility'

The investigation found the Cornwall Council "did not have proper oversight" of the process when a child is out of education and was unable to show it considered the boy's needs while he was not in school.

The ombudsman argued the council depended on schools to make referrals and then relied on outsourced services to decide whether there is a duty to provide education.

The investigation concluded the council delayed the process by not directing an outsourced service to provide education to him, instead asking the school to make a referral.

The ombudsman also found the council wrongly suggested his school was responsible for monitoring his education and its response to the complaint was inadequate by not recognising its service had failed.

The report concluded the "service designed by the council failed" and the boy was "without education for four months as a result".

Michael King, Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, said: "The council relied on schools to make decisions for which it had a statutory duty to make.

"While councils can contract out services to independent providers, they cannot contract out responsibility and remain ultimately answerable for any problems which may occur."

Cornwall Council has agreed to apologise to the family and acknowledge the missed education with a payment of £1,200.

It will review its procedures and policies and conduct an audit of children not attending school or not attending full-time.