Council told to pay for child's private school

Published on Saturday 13 September 2008 19:36

THOUSANDS of pounds to meet the cost of a disabled child's private schooling will have to be paid by his local council, a court has ordered.

The decision came after a catalogue of failures was revealed during a hearing which showed officials had made no effort to assess the needs of the four-year-old and had not even seen him for two years.

A sheriff ruled the local authority must pay for the child's fees and transport costs to the school for seven years, adding up to a bill of almost 140,000.

Lynne Macaulay, mother of severely disabled Rory, who is four, applied to Aberdeenshire Council for her son to attend the Amber Nursery, part of the Camphill Rudolf Steiner Schools in Aberdeen, as it specialises in caring for seriously disabled children and Rory previously spent time there.

She believed Rory, who had pneumococcal meningitis as a baby and was left brain-damaged, deaf, partially sighted and largely immobile, could not be supported adequately by Aberdeenshire Council's special school, St Andrew's, in Inverurie, as he needed one-to-one attention, a calm environment and a high level of physical care.

But her application was twice refused by education officials, who insisted Rory could go to St Andrew's. Macaulay took the case to the Sheriff Court in Aberdeen on August 13.

Sheriff James Tierney ruled he could not support the council because it had not done enough research into Rory's case.

In his decision he said: "It did not appear that any formal professional assessment of Rory's needs had been carried out by the (council]. It is difficult to see how a local authority can plan to make provision for the additional support needs of a child such as Rory when they have not acquainted themselves with just what these needs are.

"I would have expected that a formal assessment of Rory's needs would have been carried out in order that the ability of St Andrew's to meet these needs could be properly and systematically addressed."

He also noted that the council's educational psychologist, who has never professionally assessed Rory, had not seen him for two years and "did not have an up-to-date picture of him".

Tierney said he was persuaded by the argument of Macaulay, who employed a psychologist to demonstrate her son's needs. He ordered the council to pay Rory's school fees of 12,500 a year and transport costs of 8,560 a year, which included the cost of an escort.

Deducting government funding of 1,550 for a pre-school age child, the council faces an annual bill of 19,510.