Council loses two Ombudsman cases for failing youngsters with special educational needs in Milton Keynes

The most recent was a month ago, when a parent complained that the council had not delivered the social care provision in his son’s Education Health Care Plan.

The son, known only as Y, has special educational needs and disabilities and attended a specialist school from the age of five.

He turned 18 in the summer summer of 2022 and the council was meant to arrange a college or socail care day placement for him from September of that year.

But the placement ended, with the college saying it was unable continue “due to his behavour”. The council failed to find and alternanative and by March 2023 he was still without anywhere to go.

The parents took the case to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman who concluded that the failure caused the young man and his family an “avoidance injustice”.

He added: “This missed provision severely impacted on Y’s social skills and behaviour. This caused problems at home.

"Y and his family have suffered nearly a year of uncertainty, stress, inconvenience and frustration caused by the Council’s failure to deliver Y’s provision. This amounts to avoidable distress.”

The council agreed to apologise to the family and make a symbolic payment to them of £500.

The Ombudsman’s report stated: “A child or young person with special educational needs may have an Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan. This document sets out the child’s needs and what arrangements should be made to meet them.

“At a minimum we expect them to have systems in place to check the special educational provision is in place when a new or amended EHC Plan is issued... check the provision at least annually... and quickly investigate and act on complaints or concerns.”

The criticism came months after the same Ombudsman had listened to a case from another angry Milton Keynes parent, saying MK City Council had failed to provide Speech and Language Therapy (SALT) provision to his son, C, when he began attending college.

The parent also won the case, with the Ombudsman stating: “I find the council at fault. It failed to provide the SALT as detailed in the Education Health and Care plan. Further, it failed to take reasonable steps to source provision when its own SALT provider had no availability.

"C has not received the support he was entitled to.”

The council was ordered to pay £900 compensation and review its commissioning arrangements.

The recent cases have caused concern to another parent of a special needs youngster who launched a similar case against MK Council in 2019.

He won his complaint about failures in his son’s school transportl provision and the council had to pay out hundreds of pounds.

This week he told the Citizen: “I am really mindful how bad the care is for children and young people with SEND within Milton "Keynes and how poorly the olcal authority handles its legal duties to them.

Although my sons time in education has now ended, I hope raising awareness of two more recent Ombudsman decisions might be of interest to your readers and help other children and parents in the same situation.”