Somerset County Council fined for causing SEND child to miss school

Somerset County Council has been ordered to apologise and pay £2,000 compensation to the family

A council has been fined £2,000 after a young girl with special needs missed nearly six months of school due to delays in reviewing her care plan.

Somerset County Council fell short of providing the girl education between September 2021 and February 2022, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) ruled.

Her mother said it had caused anxiety and affected her daughter's health.

The LGSCO ordered the council to apologise and compensate the family.

The child had an education and health care plan (EHCP) from April 2020, which was designed to take account of her "medical and emotional needs" to allow her to have as normal an education as possible, according to Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Anxiety and isolation

It was reviewed on 10 March 2021, with her school sending its annual review on 29 March and the council writing to the mother to inform her of planned alterations to the EHCP on 21 April.

But the amended plan was not circulated until 28 June and the parent gave feedback and subsequently contacted the council for an update.

She said that her daughter was too ill to attend school in September 2021 due to the anxiety and isolation caused by the plan not being updated.

While the council provided her with online A-Level course materials, she was only able to attend a handful of lessons due to illness, and was unable to complete her BTEC qualification.

The updated EHCP was finally issued on 10 February 2022.

Staff sickness

The council told the LGSCO it had "struggled with staff sickness, retention and recruitment", which meant it had not always been able to review EHCPs within the timescale required.

The ombudsman ruled there "was fault" stating the girl's support "would have been improved" by the issues being resolved in a more timely manner.

A council spokesman said: "We accept the ruling and have apologised to the family for the distress caused by not meeting nationally agreed timescales.

"We are working hard to make improvements so that we meet the timescales we have agreed, more of the time."

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