Suffolk County Council left a young girl with special educational needs with no education for a year and a half, an ombudsman has found.
The girl was not able to attend school but despite repeated requests from her mother, the local authority failed to provide her with any alternative education between March 2022 and September 2023.
Suffolk also took 18 months to produce an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP), instead of the statutory 20 weeks, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman found.
The council agreed to pay the family £8,000 for the failures.
The ombudsman report follows an inspection that found ‘widespread and/or systemic failings’ in Suffolk’s services for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), which led three councillors to resign.
Suffolk’s cabinet member for education and SEND Andrew Reid said: ‘We fully accept the findings of the ombudsman – our involvement has not been good enough.
‘This ruling is not a surprise to us. We know the areas where we must do better and there are significant plans in place to improve what we do.’
