Mum given £3,500 by council after daughter dropped out of school The council said it would like to offer a "direct apology to the family for this unacceptable delay" The LGO criticised the council for suggesting a complaint by the mum wouldn't make a difference (Image: Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire ) A mum and daughter have received a payout of £3,500 after Wirral Council apologised for the “distress” caused by failings that meant a teenager dropped out of college. The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGO) investigated a complaint by a Wirral mum, referred to as Mrs B, who made a complaint about delays and poor communication from Wirral Council. This was over the education, health and care plan (EHCP) for her daughter, referred to as C, who has special education needs and disabilities (SEND). ‌ The Ombudsman upheld the complaint finding the council at fault for causing an injustice to both the mum and daughter. Mrs B complained about delays in assessments, poor communications and a lack of support, with the council offering £3,500 in compensation. ‌ Elizabeth Hartley, Wirral Council's children, families and education director, said the local authority wholeheartedly accept the Ombudsman’s findings and publicly apologised for the delay. The council said it would be outlining the next steps on how it's improving services following a recent Ofsted inspection. In her complaint, the mum said “the thought of returning to education makes C worried, as she does not believe she will receive support, having lost trust with the council” and “making enquiries and complaints for her daughter had also left her mentally and physically unwell given the lack of support she received from the council.” Mrs B also claimed both her and her husband had to take time off work to support their daughter. The decision is the latest in a series of decisions the watchdog has made against the local authority in recent years. In response to a decision in November 2024 where a family was paid more than £5,000, the council said it had carried out a complete restructure of the service. Article continues below This has included more funding as well as an expanded SEND team but as a recent Ofsted report showed, families are still waiting to see the results of this progress. The inspector for the LGO said: “The events of this complaint, which therefore must have taken place during this restructure, did not inspire confidence that this had resulted in a better service for children and young people with special educational needs. “However, I accept the impact of restructuring can take time and so it would be too soon to seek further changes in this area.” C went into year 11 in 2023 and hoped to move into further education in 2023. She had received support to help her complete her GCSEs and her mum asked the council to assess whether an EHCP was needed as the mum didn’t know if a new school would be able to provide C’s current support. ‌ The council agreed to the request but there were delays and issues after a caseworker left. In May, there was still no plan in place and later that month, the council said it was facing a shortage of education psychologists. This assessment was done at the end of May but in June 2024, the family faced further delays after a staff member left with no explanation after emails bounced back. While a draft plan was produced by July, there were further delays in communication including the handling of Mrs B’s complaint. The LGO said this was due to the council’s senior complaint officer was on long-term absence from work with temporary staff covering their role. The LGO added that by mid September, there was still no plan in place and the council was refusing to escalate the complaint. ‌ At this point, C was now at her new school and “experienced symptoms associated with her special educational needs that had a distressing impact on her.” The LGO then got involved who found the family had not had any contact from their caseworker since July 2024. A month later, the family still hadn’t had a response to an email and C was no longer in college. The council got in touch in February, months later, and the plan still hadn’t been finished. Finding the council at fault, the LGO said: “Part of the fault clearly lies in the service failure resulting from the Council having too few education psychologists last year, to meet demand. I am aware there is a nationwide shortage of educational psychologists and the Council is not the only education authority which has experienced a shortage in this area. ‌ “But I must also note the evidence showing the Council having systemic problems meeting timescales for completing EHC assessments, which pre-date any spike in demand last year. The Ofsted inspection more than three years old, noted problems in service delivery, including education psychology. “In addition, the delay in the SEND service receiving education psychology advice could not account for most of the delay in this case. Because that only accounted for between two and three months of delay. Other reasons lay behind the rest of the delay, which the Council did not explain.” The LGO also found faults with the way the council had handled the complaint arguing there was no justification in the council telling Mrs B the complaint would not make a difference. They said the council had “clearly closed its mind” to investigating the complaint. ‌ In their decision, the LGO inspector said: “I remained concerned because a complaint procedure should always seek to “influence” a service area that has failed someone, so it can put matters right. I accept at times a council service may be under so much pressure that it is routinely failing, by missing time targets. "But against this backdrop there may be times when further fault results from specific and avoidable failings traced back to human or system error. In such cases a complaint outcome might include agreeing to issue an EHC Plan without more delay. “This is not the same as complaint officers “instructing” the SEND service on how to do their job. Instead, it ensures complainants return to the position they should be in, had there been no fault besides any service failure caused by pressure on the service.” Article continues below Elizabeth Hartley, Director for Children, Families and Education at Wirral Council, said: “We wholeheartedly accept the Ombudsman’s findings and, along with a direct apology to the family, we’d like to publicly apologise for this unacceptable delay. I can confirm we have reviewed our complaint handling process and are addressing the long-standing delays with issuing Education, Health and Care Plans. In the coming weeks we will be publishing the local area’s new SEND Strategy and I will outline the next steps on our improvement journey following the recent Ofsted inspection.”