Dunstable family says council is failing children as it's fined by ombudsman over special education provision

A Dunstable family is warning that “nothing has changed” in special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) provision in Central Bedfordshire, after a local government watchdog ruled in its favour for a second time.

The Ivins family suggests Central Bedfordshire Council “continues to fail the same group of children in an identical way year after year” based on their experiences.

CBC has been told to pay the family £900 by the local government and social care ombudsman, over a case involving their younger son. A similar complaint was decided in their favour for their eldest son previously, according to the family.

Amy Ivins has warned CBC children’s services overview and scrutiny committee about its SEND service failings, and told the local democracy reporting service she remains “keen to keep these issues in the spotlight”.

She revealed the family had received £1,000 before the ombudsman case, which awarded a further £900, saying: “The SEND education system is in crisis and our case is the tip of the iceberg.

“My son is supposed to have a package of education at home paid for by the council,” she said. “This was agreed in December and we’re still awaiting any payments or provision for this.

“I’m unable to work because he’s at home and having to pay for the educational resources CBC should be funding. The education other than at school (EOTAS) package agreed by CBC is deeply inadequate and doesn’t meet his needs.

“CBC isn’t creative in educating bright autistic children, who need a broad, flexible and self-led curriculum. It’s outright discrimination from the local authority that any family should have to get a psychologist to specify all of the curriculum topics in the education, health and care plan (EHCP) for a child to get the necessary resources.

“CBC has failed to build any therapeutic schools for academically able autistic children, despite there being so many families in our situation.”

A CBC spokesman said: “We apologise unreservedly to the family for causing avoidable distress because of the delay in providing educational provision for their child.

“CBC accepts the findings in the ombudsman’s report, acting on its agreed actions already and issuing an apology. We understand this won’t remedy the experience received by this family.

“But we continue to take steps to improve outcomes for children and families, including our payments process for agreed provision. We’re working hard with an increasing demand in services to provide more SEND places and provision at schools across Central Bedfordshire.”

The complainant’s child was impacted by missing education, while it caused her and her family unnecessary and avoidable distress, said the ombudsman’s report.

“After an emergency review of his EHCP, CBC agreed to provide alternative provision of ten hours a week of tuition, two hours of forest school once a week, and monthly payments to her for online learning, subscriptions and swimming.

“She complained last May, he’d not been receiving all this alternative educational provision. The council made a payment to her of £1,000. This was made up of £200 per month for each of the five months he hadn’t had tuition.”

CBC later acknowledged a significant delay in issuing his final amended EHCP, explained the report. “It offered a payment of £400 to remedy the injustice. I’m satisfied CBC paid her everything it should for swimming and online resources, and he attended forest school as arranged.

“CBC agreed to additional provision of mentoring and occupational therapy, in July. The mentoring started in October. The occupational therapy began in November.

“The council says there was a delay sending the referral to the mentoring provider because of a change in officers. This delay is fault, which caused injustice. It wasn’t CBC’s fault the occupational therapy didn’t start promptly, although this service failure also caused her injustice.

“CBC should have sent the final amended EHCP a maximum of 12 weeks after a review in December 2022,” added the ombudsman. “The seven-month delay is fault, which caused injustice, delaying her appeal rights. CBC has agreed to apologise and make her a payment of £900.”