Are lessons being learned? January 2021 TWO Local Government Ombudsman decisions against Haringey SEND
- By Brian Leveson
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- 15 Jan, 2021
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It's only January and there are already two Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) decisions about Haringey SEND failing to carry out Education and Health Care Plan (EHCP) assessments. We include decisions from 2019 and 2020 in this summary and reflect if the lessons from previous LGO judgements are being learned.
Case 1: New Year, same issues in Haringey SEND
January 2021 sees another two Local Government Ombudsman judgements against Haringey Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) department.
In one of the cases, which has dragged on since mid-2018, Haringey SEND department wrongly twice refused to carry out an Education Health and Care Plan, and then failed to provide appropriate support for an appeal to this decision causing fault and injustice. (link to LGO website: 19 012 157 - Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman). The council were ordered by a tribunal to carry out the assessment, but then mixed up the time frames and gave the applicant incorrect support and advice.
In this recent case the LGO decided that, within the next two months, Haringey SEND department needs to provide reminders/training to ensure that staff understand the statutory timeframes for EHC assessments and plan development. Particularly, the timeframes to be met when carrying out assessments ordered by tribunals.
Looking back over other recent cases, in January 2019 Haringey SEND department was instructed to provide staff with training/briefings on the timescales which must be met for completing the EHC needs assessment and plan development process, within 3 months of that decision.
In one of the cases, which has dragged on since mid-2018, Haringey SEND department wrongly twice refused to carry out an Education Health and Care Plan, and then failed to provide appropriate support for an appeal to this decision causing fault and injustice. (link to LGO website: 19 012 157 - Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman). The council were ordered by a tribunal to carry out the assessment, but then mixed up the time frames and gave the applicant incorrect support and advice.
In this recent case the LGO decided that, within the next two months, Haringey SEND department needs to provide reminders/training to ensure that staff understand the statutory timeframes for EHC assessments and plan development. Particularly, the timeframes to be met when carrying out assessments ordered by tribunals.
Looking back over other recent cases, in January 2019 Haringey SEND department was instructed to provide staff with training/briefings on the timescales which must be met for completing the EHC needs assessment and plan development process, within 3 months of that decision.
Case 2: Another court case and lessons not learnt
Readers may be aware of a recent court case involving the Haringey SEND department and a judgement given that heavily criticised the SEND departments conduct in a child protection case. This second LGO case involves another high court case, this time a judicial review of, amongst other issues, a decision by the Haringey SEND department not to carry out a section 17 assessment and failure to complete a statutory annual review.
Link to the LGO website: 19 005 631 - Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman
Link to the LGO website: 19 005 631 - Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman
Tribunals, judicial reviews, LGO decisions, high court child protection cases
I salute all who have the tenacity to go through these legal trials and processes in order to get disabled children and children with educational needs the statutory help and support that they need - but why are Haringey SEND making meeting their statutory obligations towards SEND children so difficult?
Surely it is time to consider asking for help and getting a taskforce to take over this department to address the recurring issues.
Surely it is time to consider asking for help and getting a taskforce to take over this department to address the recurring issues.
If you thought SEND was bad - the NHS is seemingly prepared to throw away money to private companies
About 3 or 4 times a year we get the euphemistic message 'Parents please note we have put a letter in your child's bag' - its a world away from how a child's death was handled in my child's first school
More of a trial by ordeal than a well organised clearly set out administrative process for moving the care of vulnerable young adults from Haringey's Children's Services to Adult Services. We have been failed at every stage of the process.
Never EVER get on the bus without a camera running if you need the priority wheelchair space
The reality of using a London Bus in the teeming rain on a Sunday afternoon is no joke when the parents of a paraplegic person in a wheelchair clash with the self-entitled buggy-pushing parents of toddlers.
At 3pm today I received some barefaced lies from Haringey Council Adult Social Care in response to a photograph I published online yesterday and the media interest it generated
Haringey SEND Transport are insisting that a 17 year old minibus with no air conditioning is a suitable vehicle to transport my paraplegic son in this heatwave. The appalling conditions inside the minibus inside the bus is something they knew about last summer, yet they have to date done nothing whatsoever provide a suitable minibus this year nor appropriately mitigate the temperatures inside the minibus.The conditions inside the minibus are so bad that they triggered multiple seizures during the heatwave as my son has epilepsy, which they SEND transport department know about and they also know that they are triggered by heat.It is not just son who is impacted: last year we know of one child who died on Haringey SEND Transport in the summer heatwave and another who had seizures.
I am simply asking a question - are we all absolutely certain that the road closure / travel restrictions (commonly know as LTNs) placed on some of the most severely disabled people who are wholly reliant on cars are absolutely necessary
Haringey's road closures exemptions policy for disabled people is not fit for purpose, unduly burdensome and intrusive - it's time to stand up against the pro-LTN lycra-clad cycling bullies
Is the argument for and against exemptions for disabled people in Low Traffic Neighbourhoods really a case of GOOD versus EVIL?
