Oxfordshire County Council to pay out £3,400 for education failings

A council has been told to apologise and pay a boy and his mother a total of £3,400 after he missed out on full-time education for six months.

Oxfordshire County Council caused "unnecessary distress and expense" to the family.

The Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) said the authority failed to provide the boy, who has special needs, with alternative education between April and October 2021.

The council has been asked to comment.

The LGO found the local authority was to blame for "fault and delay" in the way it carried out an annual review process into the boy's education.

Various delays from December 2020 were only resolved in July, when a tribunal ordered the boy should attend his mother's preferred school from September.

The council was told to pay the boy £2,400 to acknowledge he did not receive suitable full-time education during the six-month period.

It was also told to pay the boy a further £500 "for the uncertainty and distress of whether, but for the fault, he could have started at his placement sooner".

His mother will also receive £500 in compensation "for the uncertainty, distress and time and trouble caused".

On 1 November, parents of children with special needs protested outside the council ahead of a meeting.

The authority's deputy leader Liz Brighouse said while some children were being "let down", a lack of funding from government was hampering what it can provide.

The government said funding was at record levels.

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