Council told failures to provide alternative schooling for special educational needs pupils was 'tip of iceberg'
Oxfordshire County Council were told their failures to provide alternative schooling for children with special educational needs (SEND) were “just the tip of an iceberg” at a recent meeting.
The Local Government Ombudsman upheld 13 complaints where the council failed to provide alternative education to SEND children when they were out of school for more than 15 days, between December 2022 and February 2025.
The county council was found to have “demonstrated confusion about the obligation to arrange and fund alternative education provision”, in the report presented at the Education & Young People Overview Scrutiny Committee meeting on Friday, June 13.
One mother, who won a case against the county council after going to the Local Government Ombudsman, said her “bright, loving eight-year-old boy” who is autistic, has ADHD and developmental delays, was “failed by the system”.
She told the meeting: “My child had an EHCP [Education, Health and Care Plan] that was left on the desk of SEND workers who had left the building and did not even notify us that this happened.
“My son’s EHCP was abandoned for 36 weeks, meaning that he had to endure education on a reintegration timetable for two years, because the council failed to find him alternative provision.”
Her son was put on a fixed term exclusion after biting a teacher, and was only at school for an hour a day.
The mother told councillors she had to quit her job to look after her son.
She brought her complaint to the local government ombudsman and won, and says her son is “doing so much better” in a specialist school.
She added: “Despite the years of parent blaming and the stress caused, and the ombudsman’s ruling, nobody has ever apologised for what we went through.”
Kimberly Morgan, who also spoke at the meeting, said: “Those 13 cases are just the tip of an iceberg sat in a vast ice field which is the SEND system.
“The 13 children described in those cases are not outliers.
“There are hundreds of children who have been denied their legal right to an education stretching back years.
“My own son is among them, which is why I feel compelled to remind you that today is about ensuring the action plan is actually fit for purpose.
“It’s also about getting it right for the rapidly growing number of children that have been so damaged by an education system that does not meet their needs, that they cannot be educated in school any longer.”
The Oxfordshire Parent Carers Forum wrote a letter to the county council on its duty to provide alternative schooling.
At the meeting, Jules Sinclair, Chair of Oxfordshire Parent Carers Forum, welcomed the report being brought to scrutiny, but said it still “lacks the clarity, transparency and accountability that families across Oxfordshire urgently need”.
She added: “Those 13 cases do not reflect the full scale of the issue.
“Many other families are exhausted, feel unsupported, have experienced similar failings but were unable to form similar complaints due to their capacity.
“Their stories remain unheard but are no less real.”
Leader of Oxfordshire County Council Liz Leffman said: “We know this is an issue for you and it’s an issue for us, but most importantly it’s an issue for your children, and we have to make this right.
“A policy needs to be put in place urgently, and we will be considering this at a future cabinet meeting.”