'Council is failing my daughter and I've lost hope' says mum of Harley

A SIX-year-old girl has been left out of school for months and missed the start of the academic year due to repeated “failings” from a Derbyshire council.

- By EDDIE BISKNELL

It comes as a new report shows Derbyshire County Council has paid out more than £84,000 in compensation to failed families following investigations by watchdog the local government and social care ombudsman (LGO), including children being out of school for more than a year.

Harley Wilson, aged six, should have been starting year two earlier this month but instead she remains at her Ilkeston home with mum and full-time carer, Hollie Sullivan, with support from dad, Jake.

Meanwhile her three-year-old sister, Teddie, is off enjoying preschool and completely perplexed as to why her older sibling remains at home.

Harley, who is a big fan of swimming and trampolining, has been out of school and being taught from home by her mother, a former Derby Telegraph advertising rep, since May.

This followed her school hosting an emergency review of Harley's education, health and care plan (EHC plan) in February, after which it decided it could no longer accommodate her needs.

Ms Sullivan has been pursuing support in the form of an EHC plan, a legally binding document which outlines educational support, since February 2023.

Since then, this process has become her unpaid full-time job, detailing a “hell bubble” of seemingly never-ending days of phonecalls, emails, voicemails, letters and meetings, all to end up seeing her eldest daughter out of school and spiralling fast into a mental health crisis.