The county council has been ordered to apologise and pay compensation to the family of a young man with special educational needs who missed seven months of schooling.
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has ordered Suffolk County Council (SCC) to pay Carrie Cook £2,350 for failing to educate her son, who suffers from mental health problems and has Asperger’s, between December 2021 and July 2022.
SCC was also criticised for taking 26 weeks to complete the young man’s education health and care plan (EHCP) when the legal limit is 20.
They have a month to pay the compensation, write a letter of apology to Ms Cook, and send a reminder to officials that part-time education packages should be kept under review.
It comes after this newspaper reported that 14 Suffolk families with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) children received a total of more than £32,000 in compensation in 2021.
Ms Cook, 42, from Martlesham, said: “I think it should have been more. Without being greedy - he was out of school for two years and didn’t get any GCSEs so now he’s got the extra pressure of doing that alongside his course.
“The money is going to buy my son a laptop, a decent laptop he can use especially for his English. And the rest of it we’re going to put towards a nice holiday because it’s been a stressful time.”
Ms Cook's complaint said the council had failed to provide full-time education from March 2020 and delayed reassessing his EHCP - with the Ombudsman ruling there was no fault until January 2022.
Speaking previously, she said her son was absent from school between March 2020 and two weeks ago, when he started at college where he is currently doing well.
During his absence, which was due to mental health issues, his only schooling was four hours a week online tuition in maths and English.
He left high school with no GCSEs and is now having to study for those qualifications alongside his college curriculum.
Upon review of his EHCP the council reached out to two specialist schools but both were full with no places available.
The Ombudsman ruled that while COVID during some of that period meant his education was no worse than his peers’, and through some of the rest a limited timetable had been agreed by the family, from the period from December 2021 onwards the student should have received more schooling than the council provided.
A spokesman for Suffolk County Council said: “We accept the Ombudsman’s view that, in this case, there was a six-week delay in completing the reassessment process for an EHCP and that in the first half of this year, additional educational provision – on top of that already being provided - could, and should, have been offered. The family will receive a full apology and we will of course take steps to prevent this happening again.”
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