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A family has received a £5,300 payout from Wokingham borough council after their child regularly missed hours of education over a one-year period.
The boy has special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), and has an education, health and care (EHC) plan laying out additional support he is entitled to.
The duty of providing this educational support is the responsibility of Wokingham Borough Council, where he lives.
The boy had been receiving nine hours of tuition a week. By comparison, pupils in mainstream education receive 32.5 hours of teaching per week.
His EHC plan determined that he should be receiving a minimum of 12 hours of teaching per week, with provision increasing gradually until he was able to manage 15 hours of tuition. However, the boy never received the 12-15 hours of teaching a week for the whole of the 2022/23 academic year.
He was also entitled to 30 hours of tuition with learning support assistants in an updated EHC plan issued in December 2022.
Although the council funded 25 hours of learning assistance, in September 2023 it was found that this support had not been put in place.
The mum paid for alternative learning support herself.
The details of the case have been revealed in a local government and social care ombudsman (LGO) report after the boy’s mum requested an investigation last July.
The ombudsman found that an unjust had been caused due to the loss of tuition support.
In restitution, the council agreed to pay a total of £5,300 to the mum and her son. Of that, £4,700 was offered in recognition of the injustice caused by the missed provision, and £300 was paid to both the mother and her son to recognise the impact on both of them of a delayed response to their complaints.
Councillor Prue Bray, deputy leader and executive member for children’s services, said: “We accept the findings of the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman’s report and we’re sorry for the stress and disruption this has caused the family.
“We have since made changes, including having a SEND customer relations officer in the team who can prioritise responding to complaints and learning from families so we can continuously improve.
“We’re continuing to work with the family to make sure the child gets the right support and can thrive.
“We’re also sharing what we’ve learned across our services to help prevent this from happening again.
“We know there’s more to do, and we’re committed to improving our SEND services and working with families to get the best for children and young people across our borough.”
The LGO decision was made on May 8. It is understood that the payment has now been made by the council, as the ombudsman called on it to make the payment within one month of their decision.
