Windsor and Maidenhead council at fault over child's lost education

A family whose child missed out on more than two terms of education will be paid £3,325 by the Royal Borough, after an ombudsman ruled a ‘fault leading to injustice’.

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman upheld a complaint from a mother – referred to as Mrs X – whose child suffers from anxiety as RBWM failed to provide them education between February 2024 and March 2025.

The Royal Borough was told to pay £1,600 per term after her child – referred to as Y – missed out during two terms and one week between Year 5 and Year 6.

After Y stopped attending school in January 2024, Y’s school followed council advice and submitted a formal Pupils Educationally at Risk (PEAR) referral in March 2024, which the council took six weeks to consider.

Taking six weeks rather than one week when a child is still absent from school is ‘delayed action’, causing Y three weeks of missed opportunity for education, said the ombudsman.

At the PEAR meeting, the council concluded there was no medical reason Y could not attend school and decided to co-produce a reintegration plan by working with Y’s school and Mrs X.

Mrs X told the council that she would accept any offer of council support in April 2024, but the council then failed to involve itself with Y’s reintegration plan – assuming the school would contact it if progress hadn’t been made.

This is a ‘failure to meet its responsibility’, said the ombudsman, and Y therefore had sporadic attendance at school over one term and one week between April and September 2024.

Following a complaint by Mrs X, the Council arranged for a mentor to work with Y and facilitate a suitable reintegration plan.

Y then regularly accessed online learning from November 2024 to the end of the term.

But the council decided to stop providing the mentor on December 19 due to ‘concerns the service was enabling continued absence from school’.

A psychological report confirmed that Y had stopped accessing online learning on January 24, 2025, and detailed the support needed to help her access education – but the council ‘failed’ to ensure these recommendations were put in place to help her reintegrate.

RBWM was again at fault for Y missing 10 weeks of education between January and March 2025, with only a few online learning sessions worth of education.

In a report made public this month, the Ombudsman said RBWM must apologise to Mrs X for her child’s lost education and for the inconvenience and frustration.

The authority must also pay £3,325 for Mrs X to source any suitable catch-up provision she considers appropriate for Y.

The council agreed to remind staff of the council’s duty to provide education for children and put this in place from the sixth day of a child’s absence.

The council also agreed to train staff on its responsibility to work with schools and parents to draw up reintegration plans and to retain oversight to ensure a child returns to school as soon as possible.

A council spokesperson said: “We fully accept the local government and social care ombudsman's decision, and we have apologised to the family.

“We will take forward the learnings as part of our ongoing commitment to ensuring high-quality care and support for those that need additional help to access education.”