County Council Spent £250k on Fines and Compensation to Let Down SEND Families

Published on: 17 Jan, 2024
Updated on: 20 Jan, 2024

By Chris Caulfield

local democracy reporter

The failings of Surrey County Council’s children services has meant the under-fire authority paid more than £250,000 in fines, compensation, and redress payments to families it let down last year.

The settlements are published by the social care ombudsman and last week it upheld three more complaints.

The education watchdog found Surrey County Council continues to miss deadlines, and creates needless delays for children waiting for psychological assessments and GP advice.

The latest rulings meant the authority had to payout a further £1,700 to families with an ongoing £100 a month to one – as an acknowledgement of the “ongoing uncertainty and distress” until a final care plan is issued.

The total paid to families for 2023/24 will likely be published from April but the most recent full-year figures showed the county council could have saved itself thousands of pounds – had it got things right.

The council sets itself a target of responding to 80 per cent of initial complaints within 10 working days – though this can be extended to 20 days with its children’s, families and lifelong learning department.

In children’s services, only 59.4 per cent were within the timescale.

The figures are even worse for education and home-to-school transport at just 44 per cent and 56 per cent respectively.

The Annual Complaints Performance report read: “Where fault is found following a complaints investigation, financial redress can be recommended where appropriate.

“All financial awards are approved by the relevant head of service and, if greater than £1,000, in consultation with the relevant cabinet member.

“The Ombudsman can also recommend financial redress if they find fault following an investigation.

“During 2022/23 there has been a significant increase in both the number of complaints attracting a financial remedy and the total amount paid of £258,731.

“This equates to an increase of £166,033 when compared to 2021/22.”

Of the payments, the council said, £87,446 was paid in symbolic financial remedies to recognise the impact of the fault identified, for example, distress, anxiety and time and trouble taken in pursuing the complaint.

The balance of £171,285 was primarily reimbursed costs to address missed provision which it says were “essentially funds that the council would have needed to spend to meet assessed needs irrespective of a complaint being made.”

Cllr Clare Curran

Cllr Clare Curran, SCC Cabinet member for Children, Families and Lifelong Learning, said: “We are not able to comment on any individual children specifically, however we take the findings from the Ombudsman very seriously and apologise for the distress these families experienced.

“I am aware that the council has not always got things right and that the support and service that some children with additional needs and disabilities and their families receive is not always of the standard that we would expect, and I am sorry about that. We are working hard to improve services, and a recent Local Area SEND Inspection noted progress is underway.

“Despite national pressures, we regret all delays and are working hard to reduce any backlogs, and ultimately to reduce spend on fines, which we know is higher than it should be.

“We have taken several actions to address this including securing an additional £15 million of funding to increase the capacity of key teams, extending the use of locum and associate educational psychologists, commissioning external providers for support, and increasing advertising to fill positions.

“A multi-agency recovery plan is also in place with short-term and long-term goals, which Ofsted and Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspectors noted had identified areas that need improving and that actions by the local area partnership to address these are starting to make a difference.

“We know that communication with parents and carers is an area in need of focus and plans are being developed to address this as a standalone priority workstream within the refreshed Surrey inclusion and additional needs -partnership strategy.

“We are constantly reviewing how we support young people who are unable to attend school and are implementing our £180 million capital programme that is increasing the availability of, and access to specialist provision.

“We also recognise the significant issues that confront the SEND system nationally.

“We have seen a 64 per cent increase in education, health and care needs assessment requests across Surrey since 2020, at a time of a national shortage of Educational Psychologists (EPs).

“We are doing our utmost to recruit more to meet this demand, and we are filling this gap as best we can.

“We have already been able to halve the backlog of EP advice through the steps we’ve taken locally, but we hope to see the national shortage in trained EPs and other issues addressed soon through the government’s improvement plan.

“We remain committed to improving our services and outcomes for children and young people with additional needs and disabilities so that they are happy, healthy, safe and confident about their future.”