Oxfordshire families paid £35,000 by council over SEND failures

Parents of children with special educational needs held a protest in Oxford in November 2022

A council has been told to pay more than £35,000 to families for failures over school arrangements for children with special educational needs.

The Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) has ordered payments to 14 Oxfordshire families this year, the BBC has found.

In one case reported by the LGO, a woman suffered a mental health breakdown after her autistic son had no proper schooling for 11 months.

Oxfordshire County Council said it was working on urgent improvements.

Councillor Kate Gregory has been given special responsibility for SEND improvements

Since January, the ombudsman has found fault with the council in 16 cases, ordering payments totalling £35,850 to 14 of the complainants.

The LGO said some children had lost months of schooling due to delays caused by the authority.

The mother of one affected boy won one of the largest awards of £7,150.

The LGO said she suffered a breakdown because she "could not continue working and struggled to combine supervising [her son] with looking after her baby".

In another case, an autistic boy missed an entire year of suitable education, leading to an award of £7,550.

Ex-Labour county councillor Damian Haywood, whose son has learning difficulties, quit the party over the damning Ofsted report

Few children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in Oxfordshire have their needs met, according to an Ofsted inspection published in September.

The damning report led the council's Labour group to quit the ruling coalition with the Liberal Democrats and Green Party, while Labour councillor Damian Haywood quit his party group.

A Lib Dem councillor, Kate Gregory, was subsequently given special responsibility for SEND improvement.

Council leader Liz Leffman said: "The creation of a new cabinet role dedicated to SEND will ensure that the whole council has a constant and permanent focus on turning the situation around at pace."

Stephen Chandler, the authority's performance director, said: "We are sorry that we let families down in not delivering SEND services to the standard children and young people need and deserve."

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