Central Beds Council pays mum £700 after issues with daughter's education, health and care plan

Central Bedfordshire Council was at fault for the delays and for only partly dealing with the mother’s issues about the level of support, according to a local authority watchdog.

After a review of her daughter’s special educational needs support in 2023, the complainant said CBC took too long to decide how the support would change and failed to deliver the right assistance, even after the complaint, said a report by the local government and social care ombudsman.

“It reduced the number of hours of funding for the daughter without explanation, causing her to miss education and affecting her attainment, while both suffered distress as a result.”

CBC reviewed and agreed to amend the daughter’s education, health and care plan (EHCP) in March 2023, explained the report. “It acknowledged the mother’s email asking for an update in May, but made no progress issuing the plan. She emailed again in August.

“CBC issued the final amended EHCP in September. The mother complained in November the provision in the plan wasn’t being delivered by the school. A written summary from the school suggested otherwise.

“She described the summary as inaccurate, so CBC arranged a meeting with her and the school in January this year. A plan was formed to address her concerns.

“CBC then responded to her complaint and accepted it was clear her daughter wasn’t receiving all the support in her EHCP, from the information shared in the meeting, and agreed to amend the plan again.

“There’s no evidence CBC was satisfied with the school’s delivery of the support and the council didn’t consider taking further action to ensure the daughter received that assistance.

“The council says it held a ‘planning meeting’ in March, but there’s no record of this. We issued a decision into a similar complaint against CBC in April, noting it had recruited new caseworkers to help it issue EHCPs on time.”

There was a significant delay to CBC’s amendment notice after its review of the EHCP in 2023, for which it was at fault, added the report. “The mother suffered an injustice because she had to contact the council about the delay more than once.

“It’s likely the daughter also suffered an injustice from the delay, as she must have needed the new plan. CBC told us, as part of a previous investigation, service improvements have been made with more staff hired. Time will tell whether this is effective.

“I’ve found no fault in how CBC dealt with support for the daughter up to and including the review meeting in February 2023. But it took no further action after that meeting, for which I’ve found fault.”

CBC agreed to make symbolic payments of £500 and £200 to the mother, the larger sum to recognise her daughter’s injustice from her delayed EHCP and from failing to deliver all her support at some points during 2023/24, with the smaller amount for her time spent contacting the council.