WIREDGOV

London Borough of Bromley delayed in issuing a boy’s statement of special educational needs and failed to make the full provision specified in that statement, finds Local Government Ombudsman, Dr Jane Martin.

In her report, issued today, she recommends the Council to pay a total of £7,000 to recognise that its failures caused the boy unnecessary uncertainty, anxiety and stress, and a loss of opportunity to reintegrate into school, while his mother was caused justifiable outrage as well as unnecessary uncertainty and stress.

The complainant’s son has special educational needs including selective mutism and severe anxiety. He has a statement of special educational needs. On two previous occasions, the Ombudsman has upheld her complaints (these were not published cases) about the Council’s delay and failure to make provision in earlier years for her son’s special educational needs.

She complained that the Council did not make some of the provision specified in her son’s statement, and that it delayed in issuing a new, amended statement, following a review.

The Ombudsman’s investigation found that the Council:

• delayed by 15 months in issuing a final statement of special educational needs after it had issued the draft version, thereby preventing the complainant from appealing to a First-tier Tribunal against the Council’s decision, and causing her son avoidable uncertainty and distress
• failed to provide speech and language therapy for her son for 12 months, and
• failed to provide a key worker for her son for 10 months.

The Ombudsman concludes that the Council’s failures caused unnecessary additional uncertainty that contributed to the boy’s anxieties and absences from school and reduced his choices for post-16 education.

The Ombudsman finds maladministration causing injustice and recommends the Council to:

•  apologise to the complainant and her son
• pay the son £3,500, consisting of £1,500 for stress, anxiety and unnecessary uncertainty and £2,000 for the loss of opportunity to reintegrate into school in a critical year when choices for post-16 were being made, and
• pay the complainant £3,500, consisting of £1,500 for stress and unnecessary uncertainty, £1,500 for the justifiable outrage she was caused in view of the fact that this was the third occasion she had to approach the Ombudsman following failings by the Council, and £500 for her time and trouble in pursuing her complaint.

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