Northumberland County Council has been ordered to apologise and pay more than £2,000 after failing to provide suitable educational provision for a sick child. The youngster, identified only as Y, suffered from a respiratory illness at the start of 2024.
A report by the Local Government Ombudsman explained that the child recovered, but became "too anxious" to attend school and stopped going altogether in February 2024. The Ombudsman found fault with the one-to-one education provided by the council, as well as a delay in issuing an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) and late responses to complaints.
Insufficient tuition and delayed EHCP
According to the report, the boy's mother, identified only as Ms X, requested medical tuition from the council after her son stopped going to school. This was not arranged until June, and consisted of one 50-minute lesson of maths, English, and science per week delivered on a 1:1 basis as Y felt "unable to be taught in a group setting".
The Ombudsman said the two and a half hours in total per week, which remained unchanged between September and March 2025, "falls short" of a "full-time education". Furthermore, the council also provided "no evidence" to show it considered Y’s health needs, educational ability, or age when arranging the provision.
The report said the council was required to "provide suitable education based on Y’s needs as they were at the time, and to monitor and adjust provision as his circumstances changed" – but it did not do this. It also failed to monitor how Y engaged with provision, putting the council at fault.
An assessment for an EHCP was requested in mid-June. The final plan should have been issued around the start of November in accordance with statutory guidelines. However, it was not published until mid-February 2025 – around 15 weeks after the deadline. This fault on behalf of the council "caused Ms X and Y distress".
Complaints handling failures
Furthermore, the council’s complaints policy states it will issue a stage one complaint response within 15 working days, and a second stage complaint response within 20 working days. The Ombudsman found that the council issued both complaints responses outside of these timescales, with the stage one complaint issued 18 days late and the second complaint response issued 35 days later than indicated.
The Ombudsman said the council should apologise to Ms X and Y for the "distress and uncertainty" caused. It should also pay Ms X £2,060 to remedy the loss of Y's educational provision, with the money to be used for his "educational benefit". The council also agreed to review its processes for identifying and monitoring children who are out of school.
Responding to the report, a spokesman for the council said: "We accept the findings in the report and can confirm that the recommendations are being actioned. We have also apologised to Ms X and Y. We aim to provide the highest quality education and support to young people in Northumberland and the council has already made a number of improvements in the areas identified."
