The legalities of my child not receiving an education since having an accident

[UniqueChique]

Hi there, I wonder if anyone has advice for me. My 9 yr old daughter had an accident at school which resulted in her suffering a dislodged hip initially, later a double fracture of the femur & lastly, double hip surgery. She is housebound as we live upstairs in a converted house. The recovery period is expected to be as long as 9 months. My concern is, despite the school being kept fully informed of the situation since the beginning of the school year, they firstly failed to acknowledge the situation for a week and as to date have failed to provide an adequate form of education despite numerous pleas. If I took her on holiday for this amount of time, I would be prosecuted! But the boot is on the other foot so what can I do, where can I go to seek legal advice so they can be made to answer for their failings which have been pointed out to them (quoting the govt website) as well as my local council.
Any advice gratefully received as my brain is now too scrambled

It is up to your council to deal with this. The school should have told the council that your daughter is likely to be absent from school for more than 15 days. The council is then required to ensure that your daughter continues to receive a full time education unless her health means part time would be better for her. The council should have ensured that your daughter was not missing education for more than 15 school days.

If the council is failing to live up to its responsibilities you should refer the matter to the Local Government Ombudsman.

I've spent 4 hours on the phone today quoting government guidelines but they seem oblivious to these & each time, transferred me to somebody as equally incompetent as the last, who in turn told me to contact the school. The school seem unable to set up the home tutoring service adequately (Their 1 welfare worker only works 2 days a week & seems quite incapable to cope with her work load). I want to know how to prosecute for negligence to duty of care. I am a lone parent & am finding it a bit much to cope running a home & business, caring for & educating my daughter etc.

As prh47 has said, it is usually the council who are responsible for arranging home education (www.lancashire.gov.uk/children-education-families/schools/hospital-or-home-teaching-if-your-child-is-ill.aspx#home is an example) I haven't yet met a school which arranges a home tutoring service. it is not normally their job!

As far as I'm aware it is not up to the school to provide a teacher to teach your dd at home it is the council.
How is she getting to hospital appointments etc if she is housebound? You are aren't expecting her to stay inside for 9 months?

Surely she can have the use of a wheelchair (as soon as recovers from the op) and then attend school as normal as they'd have to make reasonable adjustments to accommodate her. Or is there literally no way to get her out of the house? Can't the OTs/physios arrange something?
Or are you staying the accident and everything is the schools fault and you don't want her there?

And when home teaching is arranged it would normally only be for a short amount of time a day ( 1-2 hours seems to be common!)

So sorry for your poor dd, that sounds horrendous.

It's the Local Authority, not the school, that has responsibility for making sure your dd is educated and if she's out of school for 15 days or longer it's the responsibility of their 'Children Missing Education Officer', although they may have a different job title in your LA.

When my son was out of school, with anxiety due to bullying, we were told by the Local Education Authority's SEN Officer that they were duty bound to report his absence to the CMEO. After 15 days this would then kickstart a process involving, the CMEO and Social Services, who would come up a plan for either home tutoring or placement in a referral unit. Every authority should have a plan for children missing from eduction and are expected to be pretty hot on it, as a result of recent high-profile child protection stories in the press.

I think a first step towards kicking their rears into touch would be to threaten Judicial Review for failing to follow due procedure. You would need to do this in writing to the head of department and give them a set amount of time to respond. We had to do this when our LA failed to follow procedures with regard to finalising my ds' statement and the LA's response was to finalise within 12 hours of receiving our letter - essentially they didn't want the costs involved in defending themselves.

You can check exactly where your LA is failing here.

Hopefully someone with better knowledge of the legal procedures than me will be along soon to advise you. I hope you get it sorted soon.

When she was discharged from hospital did you see a physiotherapist and an Occupational therapist? They should have assessed your daughter's mobility and identified any issues with access to and from your home. Is she expected to stay indoors for the full 9 months? How do you work, shop etc... if she is unable to leave the house? If she is still having physiotherapist speak to them and also your GP about an Occupational therapy assessment via the community to have an assessment. You may be entitled to further aids to help access the outside world.

The education authority have a duty and I would suggest you write a strongly worded letter quoting the Education Act. This LGO guide should help you, here as a PDF file.

The other thing is related to housing. My dh (who used to work adapting properties alongside Occupational Therapists) for a council says he knows of a case where temporary rehousing more suitable for the individual was offered via the Housing Department in a similar situation.

Home teaching was supposed to be arranged with a Home Tuition Service who have my daughter's details but the school have failed to send back the required form to start the process.
She has had double hip surgery so cannot weight-bear for another 3 months & will then be on crutches for another 6. We have been told not to lift her in & out of the property. We have been told the stairs are not safe for her when she starts using the crutches. The OT sent us home know the situation but have since visited & assessed the property almost a month ago. I am waiting for them to call me back since yesterday morning.
Also phoned Child Services to tell them I can no longer cope with the situation. They laughingly told me somebody would call me, if not this week, then maybe next week.
All the time I am making these calls I am unable to teach my daughter at the same time!

Look on your LA website; there should be a named officer for liaison and a policy on educating children who can't access school due to health needs. Whether they have complied is another matter, but you could then write to head of children's services and set out the facts saying that you have hot a brick wall after trying to speak to x,y, z.

Hi there, yes OT seemed quite happy to discharge her from hospital knowing we would not be able to leave the house. When we attend appointments, she is securely moved by hospital transport.
Thank for all the advice, I shall plough on until I can plough no more.
It just seems ridiculous that I have to fight for something my daughter is entitled to whilst under such a stressful situation.

Have you got a decent MP or local councillor who could rattle some cages for you?

I would start by threatening the LGO rather than moosemama's suggestion of judicial review. The LGO is free and pretty quick. Also if the LGO fails to make the council live up to its responsibilities you are still able to take them to judicial review.

I agree with zipzap that getting your MP or councillor to help may also move things along.

Op this sounds like a terrible situation.

I'm really surprised that ot haven't put in place any plans for your dd to leave the house.

Is it possible for you to move to an accessible property? I assume that would mean your dd could then attend school in a wheelchair/crutches.

The whole situation will be very difficult on you/dd otherwise.

Stop ringing people and instead write. Email if you prefer. A documented evidence trail of your attempts will mean you are more readily listened to.

Dear OP, while you are trying to get the home education service for your DD, you can let her to play some computer games to learn in a fun way. The BBC bitesize is good, I pasted the link below. Also, does your DD's school using any website? My DS2's school using sumdog, so school will give you a code and then you can log and play.

www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks2/

Also, the readtheory one is good for reading. It looks boring, but my son likes it.

www.readtheory.org/

I would agree with contacting your MP. See if they can help.

Your poor DD and poor you. Sounds horrendous . Where are you OP?

Are the organisations that deal with education other than at school much reduced now? it is only for a short time per day/week though.

I would agree with using BBC Bitesize as a learning tool too.

I am surprised that your daughter's school has not arranged for work to be sent home, or is it too early in the process for that? Is this a possibility for you? Someone may be able to deliver/collect for you perhaps.

Op not related to education but as your dd will be " disabled" for more than 3 months you should apply for dla for her. If you are working less to care for her it will help financially.

Poor DD, that sounds absolutely horrendous for you both.

Would you prefer the hospital/ council to pull their finger out and arrange access from your home so that DD could attend school in a wheelchair, or is she unlikely to be well enough to manage that even if she could get out of the house? I ask because I think I would be very clear on what I wanted and then fight the appropriate fight!

I don't have experience of the LGO but if they are free and quick seems a good port of call. If that fails, I agree with moosemama that JR can be a very useful way of getting councils to think with their brains and find a solution.

I would recommend getting advice from a good solicitor before going down that road though. Look for one who specialises in JR and public law. Are you north or south UK?