The city council faces a bill of thousands of pounds after admitting fault
The city council faces a bill of thousands of pounds after admitting fault
A Liverpool child with persistent health issues missed a year’s worth of education after the city council failed to offer an alternative option when they weren’t able to attend any further. An investigation by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman found insufficient policies were in place at Liverpool Council to offer suitable choices to children who cannot attend school owing to health issues.
The local authority has now been found at fault by the Ombudsman in the case of a child who was only able to attend nine days of school in 2023. Officials failed to provide the child’s father – known only as Mr X – with an alternative.
The city council has now made an offer of more than £7,000 compensation and been ordered to issue an apology for the “distress, frustration and uncertainty caused.” In a report made public by the Ombudsman, it was detailed how Mr X has a child, known as Y, of secondary school age.
In 2021, when Y was in year seven, they stopped attending school due to long-term health issues. The council accepted it had a duty under the Education Act in the autumn term of 2021 and offered alternative provision to Y.
However, this was on site education which was not accessible to Y due to their health needs. The Ombudsman found how Liverpool Council closed the referral without exploring any further alternative provision.
Y started year nine in September 2023 but was only able to attend nine days due to their persistent health issues. In February 2024, Mr X made another request for alternative provision but the city council did not action this.
Mr X calculated that Y had received less than 20% of the education they should have received. He also identified there was no adequate policy available via the Liverpool Council website.
In September 2024, Mr X made the choice to educate Y using Elective Home Education.
The local authority offered a total sum of £7,200 for loss of education to Mr X and accepted inadequate procedures and processes regarding its duties contributed to its failure of securing appropriate education for Y for a significant period of time.
The Ombudsman found the city to be at fault which caused Y to miss out on a year of education which is the equivalent of three school terms.
The council said the fault occurred due to inadequate policies and procedures in relation to its section 19 duties.
Local authority officials have agreed to apologise to Mr X for the distress, frustration and uncertainty caused by its delayed complaint responses.
The ECHO contacted Liverpool Council for comment.