A watchdog said it has been ‘compelled’ to publicly highlight Bury Council’s failures after the authority took too long to remedy complaints.
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) said the local authority did not respond quickly enough to its recommendations following two complaints about the authority’s education services.
In the first case, the council agreed in 2022 to update its transport to education policy for young adults with special educational needs, but does not expect to complete the process until spring 2024.
The second case involves the council’s failure to provide funding for tutoring to make up for a child’s missed education, or to apologise to the family involved.
Ombudsman Paul Najsarek said: ‘In both these cases the council agreed to our recommendations – and timescales – to put things right for families in its borough, and at no time did it let us know these would not be achievable.
‘These failures can only have compounded the dismay felt by these families following their initial complaints.
‘It should not have taken the threat of publicly highlighting these failures for the council to take more urgent action.’
A Bury Council spokesperson said: ‘We agree that the delay in implementing change when this was first identified by the LGSCO was unacceptable, and have now put in place clear plans to implement necessary changes in response, and have also taken steps to prevent re-occurrence of delay in responding to such recommendations.’
