Council pays ‘distressed and upset’ mums hundreds of pounds for special needs delays

Three mums have been paid hundreds of pounds as compensation for delays to their children’s special needs support.

The cases are the latest to illustrate Buckinghamshire Council’s difficulties in meeting the growing demand for education, health and care plans (EHCPs), which is being worsened by the national shortage of educational psychologists.

In recent months, the council has also been forced to pay out a string of other families for failing to meet deadlines for EHCPs.

EHCPs are legal documents specifying the additional support a child or young person requires in school in order to meet their special educational needs or disabilities.

Details of the latest three cases of Bucks parents complaining about delays related to EHCPs have just been published by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, which investigates complaints against councils.

In the first, the watchdog upheld a complaint by a woman known only as ‘Mrs X’ and said Bucks Council had agreed to pay her £100 for each month of delay until it issued the final EHCP.

Needs assessments do not always lead to an EHCP being made and where this is the case, parents should be told within 16 weeks.

But where the outcome is that an EHCP will be made, the council has 20 weeks to issue the plan from the date a needs assessment was requested.

Mrs X asked the council to assess her child for an EHCP on January 30 last year, but as of June 17 – week 20 of the process – it had not done so.

The delays experienced by Mrs X were similar to those experienced by another mum, known as Miss X, who also experienced difficulties securing special needs support for her child.

In this case – the second of the three – the council was told to pay Miss X a total of £400 after it issued an EHCP four months late, following the mum’s request for an assessment in February 2024.

In each case, the Ombudsman found ‘service failure’ and said the council’s delays had caused the two women ‘frustration and distress’.

The watchdog’s reports for both read: “The council has accepted it has taken longer than it should to complete the process due to a shortage of educational psychologists.”

Educational psychologists conduct assessments to help clarify and define a child’s needs before a council issues an EHCP.

In the third of the three cases, the Ombudsman upheld a complaint by another mum who complained the council took too long to respond to her request for a change to the EHCP of her child who has complex needs.

The watchdog said the authority only issued the final amended EHCP a full academic year after the mother made her request, meaning her child missed out on some art therapy they were entitled to under the plan.

The mother was reported to be ‘upset’ by the council’s failings, for which it apologised and paid her £300.

The council explained the delay was partially caused by a ‘staff mistake followed by staffing issues and a manager’s absence’.

The council has been approached for comment about all three cases.