A Salford child was left with no schooling after the council failed to provide for her special educational needs, according to a damning Ombudsman report.
Salford City Council came under fire from the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman who found that the education board failed to properly arrange alternative educational methods for a schoolgirl, known as ‘C’, with special educational needs (SEN) who could not attend school from March last year.
An alternative one-to-one tutoring scheme then broke down after one month and no educational provision was provided until November 2022.
The child’s mother and an a SEN advocate argued “forcefully” for her to be provided with an education, and the council was forced to apologise and pay £2,000 in compensation, the report states.
After the mother complained to the council about C’s missed education, the council had agreed there was fault between March 2022 and July 2022.
In between September and October, three Access to Education panel meetings took place to discuss C’s case but C had no education provision for a further six weeks due to the failed one-to-one tutoring arranged through the meetings.
The report said: “There was a delay to providing appropriate alternative education when the first provider failed. However, I have seen records that show some of this delay was due to consulting with Mrs B and providers. This is fault by the Council. C missed education provision for six weeks.
“On the balance of probabilities, the period of time without alternative education provision from March to July, followed by the unsuccessful provision from September, and the subsequent period without provision towards the end of the year has impacted negatively on C’s educational attainment.”
It wasn’t until C began to re-integrate back into school in October and November that adequate educational alternatives were successfully provided.
The girl is now being provided education and earlier this year the mother requested an increase in contact time for her daughter, which the Council positively responded to without delay, according to the Ombudsman report.
The report found there had been “injustice” and also required the council to provide guidance to staff about alternative education provision and their responsibilities for ensuring it is considered and provided where necessary.
By law, councils must provide suitable education at school or elsewhere for pupils who are out of school because of exclusion, illness or for other reasons, if they would not receive suitable education without such arrangements
A Salford City Council spokesperson said: “We are unable to comment on individual cases, however we can confirm the council supports parents and children with alternative education if they are unable to attend a mainstream school.
“The council’s Access to Education Policy and protocol came into force in September 2022. Guidance has been provided to relevant staff about alternative education provision and their roles and responsibilities for ensuring it is considered and provided where necessary.”
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