Bromley Council has been criticised by the Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman for a delay in issuing a child’s care plan which stretched over seven months.
The report claimed the council received a request for an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) for the mother’s child on January 25, 2023.
The daughter, named Y in the report, had a managed move to a school from February to May that year which failed, leaving her without a school.
The pupil was then reportedly abroad with her mother, names Mrs X in the report, and her family from May to September that year.
The council became aware of the failed move in September, with the authority then making the decision to issue an EHCP for the child in October 2023 and schools being consulted in November and December.
The plan was then issued on January 12 2024, nearly a year after the initial request for the assessment was received. The report added that Y did not receive any education from September until the EHCP was issued.
The ombudsman said in their report that the authority was at fault for the time it took to issue the EHCP.
The council reportedly claimed a delay in the needs assessment process had caused the issue, with the plan being issued 50 weeks after the request instead of the required 20 weeks.
The report claimed that the authority felt an exemption should have been made for the 12 weeks Y was out of the country between May and July 2023.
However, the ombudsman claimed they saw no evidence of the council attempting to contact the family from May 26 to the end of the summer holidays.
They added: “If the council was not waiting for information from Mrs X and did not write or email her at the time to explain the exemption then I do not consider that it is reasonable for the council to decide, after the event, there was an exemption period… There is no reason it could not have contacted the family via email/telephone while they were away.”
The council also reportedly claimed it felt there should have been an exemption for four weeks when it was waiting for information from a school over the summer holidays.
The report said that there was no evidence of the authority writing to the school just before or during the holidays, and that the needs assessment should have been completed before the holidays started.
Y shortly attended school when her EHCP was issued in January 2024 but was then withdrawn by her mother.
The parent asked for revisions to the plan in March and a new EHCP was then issued with a different school named.
The authority was instructed to pay Mrs X £3,150 in recognition of the frustration caused as well as the loss of education and delay in issuing the EHCP for her daughter.
The ombudsman also advised the authority to apologise to the mother and review its guidance for staff to ensure EHCP needs assessments were completed on time.
A Bromley Council spokesperson told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “Bromley Council has cooperated fully with the Ombudsman’s investigation and agreed with the proposed remedial action, with other work previously actioned already as the Ombudsman has acknowledged.”
They added: “The council is committed to providing every child in its borough with the best possible education but sometimes struggles when the available resources, both from within the council and outside agencies, are insufficient to provide the service we would wish to the ever-growing numbers of families seeking support.
“This is the same for every other local authority across the country with responsibility for supporting children with SEND, as recognised by the Ombudsman’s own data and reports.”
