SEND

Cheaper to pay fines than provide SEND support

Councils pay families thousands of pounds for failure to provide support stipulated in EHCPs

Councils pay families thousands of pounds for failure to provide support stipulated in EHCPs

Exclusive

Councils across England are paying families thousands of pounds after failing to provide SEND support set out in education, health and care plans (EHCPs).

But experts say the costs can be less than providing the special educational needs provision children are entitled to – meaning services “rarely improve”.

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) investigates complaints from parents about councils’ administrative actions, and can request that councils pay “financial remedy”.

Schools Week examined complaints made over the past four months, and found 21 cases in which councils paid out at least £2,000.

In one case, Hertfordshire County Council paid the mother of a boy who had been excluded from school £8,500.

The ombudsman found it at fault for not providing an appropriate education or the specialist provision stipulated in his EHCP for more than a year.

Surrey County Council was found to have caused “significant injustice” to a teenager after “repeated failures” left her for two years without any of the educational provision or therapeutic activities detailed in her EHCP.

The council paid her father £14,400 for her loss of education, plus £500 in recognition of the family’s “distress, uncertainty, and time and trouble”.

Most complaints upheld

But payouts are “almost always far less than the cost of delivering provision in the first place,” said Matt Keer of Special Needs Jungle.

As a result, “even though the overwhelming majority of complaints are upheld, local SEND practice rarely improves”.

Ombudsman guidance states councils should pay up to £2,400 per term when their fault has resulted in a loss of education provision. Parents can also get £100 for each month an EHCP is delayed over the statutory 20 weeks.

But provision mandated by an EHCP costs on average £19,100 a year for a mainstream secondary placement and £23,900 in a state special school, according to the National Audit Office. Private places average £61,500.

A spokesperson for Hertfordshire council said it took “all decisions by the LGSCO very seriously”.

The council noted an increase of more than 200 per cent in EHCPs since 2015. More than half of its EHC needs assessments were now completed on time, above the national average.

Surrey said it had invested £15 million into a multi-year plan that included recruiting more staff and building new specialist school places.

It said its EHCP timeline levels were well above the national average and it had caught up on its backlog of EHC needs assessments.

Last March, Schools Week revealed SEND complaints to the ombudsman had nearly tripled since 2019.

Ninety-two per cent of the SEND complaints investigated in 2023-24 were upheld. The ombudsman’s office told Schools Week it expected to uphold a similar proportion this year.

“A situation where we are upholding nearly 100 per cent of complaints cannot be one that is working for children and their families,” it recently told the parliamentary education committee’s ongoing SEND inquiry.

Not a deterrent

Gillian Doherty, also of Special Needs Jungle, said it was difficult to know whether councils’ actions were deliberate.

“They are in a desperate financial situation, so they’re saving money in whatever short-term way they can – regardless of the consequences.”

She added the level of the penalties were “not of a deterrent nature…That gets completely exploited.”

Brendan Anderson, an independent SEND and EHCP consultant, said parents had told him the £100 “does not really compensate for the missed provision”. 

“If it was £1,000 a month, maybe things would change.”

The ombudsman said the payments were “not intended to act as compensation or a fine”.

Instead, payments were “a modest symbolic amount” to recognise “the fault and injustice experienced by the young person and family involved”.

The ombudsman also makes recommendations on how to improve councils’ service.

“The starting point for the remedies we recommend…is to try and put the person back in the position they should have been in if the issues had not occurred.”

’In circumstances where a child or young person has been out of school or without provision for an extended period, that is not generally possible”.

Margaret Mulholland, SEND and inclusion specialist at the ASCL leaders’ union, said that behind each story was a child and their family “wrestling with complex issues and desperately in need of expert help”.

“We urgently need to rescue the special educational needs system to ensure that schools and local authorities have the capacity they need to offer timely support to all children in their care.”

Latest education roles from

IT Technician

IT Technician

Harris Academy Morden

Teacher of Geography

Teacher of Geography

Harris Academy Orpington

Lecturer/Assessor in Electrical

Lecturer/Assessor in Electrical

South Gloucestershire and Stroud College

Director of Management Information Systems (MIS)

Director of Management Information Systems (MIS)

South Gloucestershire and Stroud College

Exams Assistant

Exams Assistant

Richmond and Hillcroft Adult & Community College

Lecturer Electrical Installation

Lecturer Electrical Installation

Solihull College and University Centre

Sponsored posts

Sponsored post

Dream Big Day: Empowering Every Pupil to Imagine, Create, and Flourish

In today’s rapidly evolving world, educators face an immense challenge: How do we inspire young people to envision ambitious...

SWAdvertorial
Sponsored post

Reframing digital skills for the workforce of tomorrow

No longer just for those with a passion for technology: why digital skills matter

SWAdvertorial
Sponsored post

Safe to speak, ready to act: SaferSpace tackles harassment, misconduct and safeguarding concerns in schools 

In today’s education climate, where safeguarding, wellbeing and staff retention are under increasing scrutiny, the message is clear: schools...

SWAdvertorial
Sponsored post

Beyond exams: why ASDAN’s refreshed qualifications are key to real-world learner success

In today’s outcome-driven education landscape, it’s easy to overlook the quieter, yet equally vital, qualities that help learners truly...

SWAdvertorial

More from this theme

SEND

DfE extends neurodiversity support scheme, but with less funding

Programme that trains teachers to better identify needs extended into 2025-26 with £9.5m

Lydia Chantler-Hicks
SEND

Extra £1bn SEND funding is ‘not reaching children’

Many councils aren't passing on the funding allocated for high needs at last year's budget

Jack Dyson
SEND

SEND reforms: the backlash begins

‘If SEND isn’t fixed now - it will become so broken and big, it never gets resolved’, says one...

John Dickens
SEND

Schools could face SEND tribunal penalties 

Direction forcing schools and councils to follow rules on evidence bundles follows deluge of 'irrelevant' information

Freddie Whittaker

Your thoughts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *