Shropshire Council to pay mum over handling of education plan

BBC News

5 days ago

A council has been ordered to pay a mother more than £3,000 for the way it handled her child's Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan.Referred to as Mrs X, the woman was first issued with an EHC plan for her child on 4 August, 2022, which was due to include "specific achievable targets" relating to their speech and language skills.However, nearly two years later, in April 2024, Mrs X made a complain, because speech and language therapy had not been provided. Her child's first session was not given until two months later.As a result of a Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman (LGO) inquiry Shropshire Council, which has been approached for comment, was ordered to pay the compensation.
The inquiry heard that in December 2023, the council held an annual review of the EHC plan, with a final amended version issued the following March.When Mrs X made the complaint to the authority in April 2024, she argued the council had not completed the annual review within statutory timescales.
In June that year, the council provided a stage one complaint response, saying that despite providing funding to the child's school, it had not yet initiated the therapy.The authority apologised, and promised to work with Mrs X and the school, and upheld her complaint about the delays.A speech and language therapist provided the first session for the child in June, followed by a second at the start of July.Mrs X sought consideration of her complaint at stage two in mid-July, last year. The council acknowledged it and promised a response by 4 September.Meanwhile, the therapist provided three home visits for the child in the summer of 2024, and two further visits in November and December.In December, the authority issued a stage two complaint response, saying it had also accepted it had failed to provide suitable speech and language therapy for the child, and apologised for the delays in responding to Mrs X.It added the therapy was then in place at the child's school and they were benefitting from twice-weekly input.
'Distress and uncertainty'
The authority also said it needed to make sure appropriate reviews of the therapy were taking place.The child was visited by therapists three times in March 2025 and once in April, with further sessions planned.However in October 2024, Mrs X took the complaint to the LGO.Although the LGO would only look at matters dating back to October 2023, it decided to investigate back to August 2022, as Mrs X would not have known about the failure to review the EHC plan until August 2023.Reaching its decision on 11 May 2025, the LGO told the council to pray Mrs X £2,700 for the loss of speech and language therapy provision from August 22 2022 to March 2024.A further £300 was to be paid to her for the "frustration, distress and uncertainty" caused through its six-month delay.Finally, £100 would be paid for the "inconvenience and frustration" caused by its two-month delay in providing its stage one complaint response, which was outside the council's complaint handling process.
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