The council has been made to pay her £3,600 to apologise
Cambridgeshire County Council has been told to pay a mum £3,600 after its delays saw her son miss out on education. The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman said the family faced an “excessive” wait of seven months for alternative provision to be put in place after the county council was told he was struggling to attend school.
The Ombudsman upheld the complaint against the county council, and has told the authority to apologise to the family and to review what happened to ensure the same mistakes are not made again. The county council said it has apologised and is committed to addressing the issues raised.
The Ombudsman’s report said the mum, referred to as Mrs Y, complained after facing delays and issues getting support for her son, referred to as Z. It explained that Z had been issued with an Education Health and Care (EHC) Plan in February 2024, when the family were living within another local authority area.
EHC Plans are issued to children with special educational needs, setting out what arrangements and extra support they require. The Ombudsman’s report explained that Z was struggling to attend school after starting Year 7 in September 2024, and was only there for short periods of around 30 minutes to two hours, and was not attending lessons.
It said that after the family moved into Cambridgeshire County Council’s area in October, Mrs Y contacted the authority highlighting the issues they were facing with Z at his current school. She asked for the county council to consider arranging alternative provision for Z as he was struggling to attend school.
However, the report said the county council had no evidence that it acted on this information, and that while there was “some limited evidence of communication” with Mrs Y, it could not provide any evidence of any discussions with Z’s school taking place.
The report said there was also a delay carrying out an annual review of Z’s EHC Plan, and that due to capacity issues and the use of agency staff to cover, there was “no consistent allocated caseworker to ensure this happened”.
A phase transfer review was carried out in December, which takes place when a child with an EHC Plan moves from one phase of education to another, such as moving from primary to secondary school. Mrs Y told the council that she did not believe he could attend school full time and that the authority should have arranged alternative provision for him.
She also said she believed the council had failed in its duty to ensure her son received the support that his EHC Plan said he needed. The council said there was no evidence to support Mrs Y’s view that Z was too unwell to attend school, however Z fully stopped attending school in February 2025.
An annual review of Z’s EHC Plan did take place the same month, however, the council admitted it delayed logging the review so the case worker could process amendments. Mrs Y made a formal complaint in March, highlighting the delays that had been faced.
The council initially apologised following this complaint for delaying to put in place alternative provision for Z and for failing to communicate with Mrs Y. By mid-May alternative provision for Z had started, for 15 hours a week, with a tutor visiting him at home or at a community centre.
However, Mrs Y claimed that this support was not successful, and that it was “all too general, like playing board games”. The report said Z is now on the roll of a school named in his EHC Plan, but that he only stays there for a maximum of 30 minutes before returning home.
It added that Mrs Y has appealed the decision to allocate this school to Z. The outcome of this will be decided by a tribunal. The Ombudsman focused on considering how the county council acted in responding to Mrs Y’s concerns and meeting its duty to provide Z with the support he requires.
‘Council failures caused injustice to the family’
The report said: “On receipt of [Mrs Y’s] letter the council should have explored what was happening with Z’s education and the provision set out in his EHC Plan. It failed to consider and decide whether it needed to step in and make section 19 provision.
“It also failed to consider and decide whether the provision set out in his EHC Plan was being provided. It failed to ensure, when case staff left, arrangements were in place for the prompt re-allocation of the case to other staff.
“It did not act on her request until March 2025, five months later, when she complained. Alternative provision was eventually put into place in May 2025, seven months after her initial request. I consider these failures caused Mrs Y and Z injustice.”
The Ombudsman said Mrs Y and Z “lost the opportunity” to have the council consider and decide whether it needed to provide alternative provision sooner, and that the seven months it took to be put in place was “excessive”.
The Ombudsman also said the family lost the opportunity to have the council consider and decide whether the support set out in Z’s EHC Plan was being provided sooner than it did. The report said there were also failings on the council’s part for its delays in reviewing and amending the EHC Plan and for delays handling Mrs Y’s complaint.
The Ombudsman told the county council to send Mrs Y a written apology and to pay her £3,600 in recognition of the impact of lost education provision for Z. The council was also told to review why it failed to respond and act on Mrs Y’s request back in October 2024, to ensure this does not happen again.
Council says it ‘fully accepts Ombudsman’s findings’
A spokesperson for the county council said: “We accept the Ombudsman’s findings fully. We have sent a written apology to the family and made a payment of £3,600 in recognition of the missed education along with any uncertainty and distress this caused.
“We are committed to addressing the issues raised and have reminded SEN staff about our duties to ensure children with EHC Plans receive the provision identified and to provide appropriate alternative education when a child is out of school.
“Improving the lives of children with SEND and of their families is vitally important. We currently support more than 8,000 children and young people with EHC Plans in Cambridgeshire. The demand for our SEND services continues to increase at an unprecedented rate, like in other parts of the country.
“We’re working hard to meet the needs of these young people and their families, but we know there is much more to do. We’re implementing improvements following the inspection of our Local Area partnership for SEND earlier this year and have committed to investing a further £780,000 to increase staffing and improve the time taken to complete EHC Plans.”
