Overview
The complainants (Mr and Mrs C), the parents of a teenage son (Child C) with special educational needs, raised a number of concerns about Child C's education while he attended three of the City of Edinburgh Council's (the Council) schools (School A, School B and School C) and about the way their complaints had been handled by the Council. In their initial submission they made 17 specific complaints. These were the subject of an earlier detailed report on which both Mr and Mrs C and the Council commented. In light of those comments, it was decided not to pursue further four specific heads of complaint and to group together others in this amended report.
Specific complaints and conclusions
The complaints which have been investigated are that the Council:
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(a) failed in their statutory duty to offer appropriate full-time education to Child C suitable for his needs (no finding);
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(b) failed to provide Mr and Mrs C as parents with adequate and sufficient information to make an informed choice of school for Child C and to ensure smooth transitional arrangements and liaison between schools (not upheld);
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(c) failed, following Child C's exclusion from School C in September 2002, to take timely and appropriate steps to deal with the exclusion and to support Child C and Mr and Mrs C (upheld);
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(d) failed to deal in an appropriate and timely manner with Mr and Mrs C's placing request for Child C to attend a residential school in England (partially upheld); and
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(e) dealt inappropriately with two complaints Mr and Mrs C submitted (partially upheld).
Redress and recommendations
The Ombudsman considers that the report highlights the difficulties in providing for a child where special educational needs are compounded by behavioural difficulties and the frustrations experienced by parents striving to achieve the best possible provision of education services to meet their child's needs. While the Council's Education Department generally had proper regard to their obligations, the lack of local options available undoubtedly had an important bearing on their responsiveness. The Ombudsman recommends that the Council:
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(i) review the problems confronted by Mr and Mrs C in securing appropriate suitable education to meet Child C's needs;
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(ii) apologise to Mr and Mrs C for their failures identified in the report; and
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(iii) review the implementation of the Council's complaints procedures particularly with regard to services for children and young people.