Council apologises after Ombudsman report finds two children missed therapy support

Buckinghamshire Council has apologised after an investigation by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman found that two children did not receive all the therapy support set out in their Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) during the 2023–2024 academic year.

The Ombudsman published a public interest report following a complaint about the support provided to the two children.

The report found the children did not receive all the therapy support they were entitled to during the period. At the time, just under 400 children were receiving similar therapy services from the same provider.

Buckinghamshire Council said the Ombudsman’s report does not find that “up to 400 other children were also affected by delays”. The council said it raised this with the Ombudsman after the statement appeared in the Ombudsman’s press release, and that it has since been corrected on the Ombudsman’s website.

The council said it fully accepts the findings and has apologised to the mother of the two children affected.

Carl Jackson, Cabinet Member for Education and Children’s Services, said

“It is important to clarify however, that the reference to ‘up to 400 children’ by the Ombudsman reflects the size of the cohort covered by the sub-contracted service for Speech and Language Therapy during 2023/24, rather than the number of children who experienced a delay following the contract transition. Our NHS partners wrote to all families affected at the time to explain the changes and confirm how therapy would continue to be delivered.”

Jackson added: “We continue to face high demand for Special Educational Needs & Disability (SEND) services, but we are successfully delivering improvements to those services. That positive progress was recognised in the encouraging Ofsted SEND Local Area Inspection report published on 10 February.

“Last year we adopted our local SEND and Inclusion Strategy with partners, demonstrating our shared commitment to strengthening services across Buckinghamshire and ensuring no child misses out on the support they need.”

Jenny Ricketts, Chief Nurse at Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, said: “We take the Ombudsman's findings extremely seriously and are deeply sorry that the children and their family did not receive the support they were entitled to. This is not the standard of care we strive to deliver. We are already strengthening our processes and working closely with partners to ensure children and young people with SEND receive timely, consistent and high-quality support. Our teams are committed to learning from this and making the improvements needed so families can have full confidence in the services we provide.”

The Ombudsman’s report highlights lessons for the council and other organisations responsible for delivering support to children with EHCPs.

Buckinghamshire Council said it will publish an action plan within the next three months outlining steps to review EHCP provision and prevent similar issues happening again.

The Ombudsman’s full report is available here (external site).