A local authority is reviewing how it monitors children out of regular school after an investigation found it “ignored” its supervision responsibilities for pupils who had been out of education for months.
Essex County Council said the 12-year-old girl was unable to “participate” in her schooling because she attended a secondary school in a separate area and even told her parents to seek support elsewhere.
The girl was working part time but stopped attending school due to delays in issuing her education, health and care plan (EHCP).
A Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman inquiry found that the council's “refusal to recognize responsibility” for overseeing young people's education had “created injustice”.
Review set according to probe
A child with special educational needs had no alternative education for several months when he was unable to attend school for medical reasons.
all school week A September survey found that children in a third of all areas were stuck on a waiting list of 20 people for specialist services. However, some people receive no training at all while they wait, while others receive training online.
Council leaders have pledged to appoint a senior executive from the authority to review alternative provisions to improve services.
The ombudsman also said he would develop an action plan to improve decision-making about the education of out-of-school children and improve monitoring of part-time timetables.
Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman Amerdeep Somal said the council's “lack of action” had probably “had a significant impact on this young girl's academic and personal development”.
“Her mother said this affected her anxiety and mental health and even made her not want to leave the house.”
Delays due to lack of psychologists
The ombudsman found that Essex Council was “negligent” in delaying the girl’s EHCP for three months. It should have been published in the third week of November 2022, but was not completed until the end of February 2023.
This is primarily due to a national shortage of educational psychologists.
“To a large extent, the delays were due to service failures rather than poor administration, as they were to some extent beyond the council’s control,” the report said.
National figures show almost half of children waited longer than the legal deadline of 20 weeks for an EHCP to be issued last year.
Authorities have devised an “action plan” to tackle the problem and “have agreed to an independent approach.” [educational psychologist] Reports provided by parents' if they meet quality requirements.
The report also detailed how, during the EHCP needs assessment, the child “became restricted from attending school and stopped attending from October 2022”.
Child and youth mental health service specialists sent a letter to the secondary school explaining the reasons for her absence.
City council 'refuses to participate'
But by the November meeting, Essex Council had “refused to take part” on the grounds that schools had other powers. The report said authorities “disregarded their responsibilities.”
Essex even advised the child's mother to contact the local council where the school was located.
She was also accused of failing to “consider whether alternative provision should be made” for her “when she was out of school from mid-December 2022 to the end of April 2023”.
The ombudsman noted that over the course of her ordeal, the girl's “anxiety and mental health worsened, leading to her not wanting to leave the house.”
Her mother also experienced “distress and uncertainty” as she “struggling to find and make provisions” for her children “to receive some education and support.”
‘The lessons of the past were not learned’
A previous Ombudsman inquiry resulted in “several decisions recommending service improvements to the council's approach to its duty” to arrange appropriate education at school or elsewhere for students who are out of class.
Somal said he was “disappointed” to report that previous recommendations had been “successfully implemented.” [they] We should have gone a long way to prevent this from happening.
“What happened here is not enough. The young girl was failed by the council that was in charge of her.”
An Essex County Council spokesman said: “Urgent efforts are underway to improve the assessment period.” The council is also strengthening “the support available to families while they wait”.
They pointed to “a number of overlapping factors impacting performance”, including the recruitment and retention of educational psychologists and a “significant increase” in EHCP requests post-Covid.
“Every child deserves the opportunity to thrive and improving the current situation as quickly as possible is our top priority. “We will leave no stone unturned as this work continues.”
The council will apologize to the family and pay £3,120 for its failures.