Agenda item

1:10 pm

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGO) has issued a report following its investigation of a complaint against Oxfordshire County Council. The complaint was about Education & Children's Services matter. The LGO found that there had been fault on the part of the Council, and this had caused injustice to the complainants.

The council has agreed to take action which the LGO regards as providing a satisfactory remedy for the complaint. The LGO welcomes the work the council has already carried out, and has planned, to address the fault identified in this and our previous investigation. This is satisfactory to address the service failures identified. 

The council has undertaken recommendations to address the injustice caused to Mr and Mrs X and Child D and to address the injustice that may have been caused to others as set out in the report. 

A full apology has been issued to Mr and Mrs X and Child D and this report addresses the outcomes of recommendations to address any injustice that may have been caused to others.

The Committee is RECOMMENDED to

a)            note the barriers to an efficient system of tracking and placing CME and request that Cabinet make representations at national political level to ensure academies comply with the terms of their funding agreements in a timely manner and that the Secretary of State for Education be given powers to enforce this;

b)           note the actions undertaken from both LGO rulings in 2019 in respect of CME with medical needs and confirm they are satisfied effective arrangements have been put in place to avoid similar circumstances occurring again;

c)            note the audit of pupils following referral to FAPs in the period required and that all pupils have been placed and their whereabouts are known;

d)           note the audit of all pupils that may be classified as CME in the period required and that all reasonable efforts have been made to satisfy the Council that these pupils are not or no longer CME; and

e)            confirm that the Council has met the terms of the LGO ruling and that this should be reported to that office. 

Chris Hilliard introduced the report.  He stated that what had happened in the case of Child D was regrettable and not acceptable.  He apologised unreservedly to the parents who were present at the Committee meeting.  The Director of Children’s Services had met with the family and personally apologised.  It should never had ended up with the Ombudsman because the Council should have resolved the situation itself.  This compounded the earlier errors and the family were quite right to go to the Ombudsman.  Actions have been taken to ensure that such a case does not happen again.

Allyson Milward summarised the report.  The problem related to the period from September 2016 to December 2018.  Since then a new Fair Access Protocol has been introduced to ensure that this cannot happen again.  The Council now has the Service Level Agreement with the Hospital School  that would have benefitted the child in question to direct them onto the roll.  It is working well.  There will be a review of the new Fair Access arrangements by 31 January 2020.

A full audit has been completed on offers given and accepted and there are no Children Missing Education (CME) outstanding from that period.  A fully independent audit of processes related to school admissions and CME has been commissioned and the outcomes are expected by December.

Deborah Bell described the new Learner Engagement Services which brings together the statutory functions in one place.  It brings a single focus to ensure more children are in school more of the time.  She confirmed that the Hospital School is a recognised school and not only a service.  The agreement with the Hospital School has been revised to accommodate medically unfit children that are not on a school roll.

Allyson Milward added that the Council could direct maintained schools to take a pupil, but it has not been able to do that with academies since they have been introduced.  Academies are in law an admissions authority in their own right and have to approve any admissions to the school roll for this to take place. 

Officers accepted that the Council needed to be more robust in situations involving academies and the new Fair Access Protocol reflected that.  However, if an academy says ‘no’, the Council’s only recourse is to the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) and there is no timeline for them to deal with it.

The Chairman proposed an additional recommendation to add to those proposed in the report:

“To ask Cabinet to ask the Secretary of State to restore the ability of Local Authorities (LAs) to instruct schools under Fair Access; and to make it mandatory for all academies to share all data with the LA for safeguarding pupils.”

Officers confirmed that there were further problems when it comes to early years providers and children educated at home.  They also noted that there was a disconcerting gap between the last health visit - between two and two and half years old - and the age of five when a child must attend school.  There is a need to work out a strategy with colleagues in Health.

Officers confirmed that the approach now was that cases should only go to the Fair Access Protocol in extremes – most should be sorted out by officers and schools in cooperation.  Most schools are buying into data sharing now.  None are refusing they just need to be chased on it.  The Chairman expressed the view that it should be mandatory and checked by Ofsted.

Allyson Milward summarised the audit carried out.  It was a huge piece of work involving 10,000 cases.  They confirmed that no other child was denied access for the same reason as this case.  21 cases were outside the three-month timeline.  3 were classified CME but all were ultimately placed.  It is still unsatisfactory how long it can take, especially for a vulnerable child.

Deborah Bell reassured the Committee that, despite data sharing problems, children are not invisible as schools are obliged to share their census with the Department of Education.

Members agreed to add the Chairman’s proposal to the recommendations.

The Chairman thanked officers for their work on this issue.  They had really grasped the nettle.  He also offered his apologies to the parents present.

RESOLVED: to

a)            note the barriers to an efficient system of tracking and placing CME and request that Cabinet make representations at national political level to ensure academies comply with the terms of their funding agreements in a timely manner and that the Secretary of State for Education be given powers to enforce this;

b)            note the actions undertaken from both LGO rulings in 2019 in respect of CME with medical needs and confirm they are satisfied effective arrangements have been put in place to avoid similar circumstances occurring again;

c)            note the audit of pupils following referral to Fair Access Panels in the period required and that all pupils have been placed and their whereabouts are known;

d)            note the audit of all pupils that may be classified as CME in the period required and that all reasonable efforts have been made to satisfy the Council that these pupils are not or no longer CME;

e)            confirm that the Council has met the terms of the LGO ruling and that this should be reported to that office; and

f)             ask Cabinet to ask the Secretary of State to restore the ability of Local Authorities (LAs) to instruct schools under Fair Access and to make it mandatory for all academies to share all data with the LA for safeguarding pupils.