Council to pay £6,500 after failing autistic child

A council should pay £6,500 in compensation to an autistic child and their mother for failing to provide special educational provision (SEP), an ombudsman has found.

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman said Slough Borough Council was at fault in the case of the child, known as Child Y, and the mother, Ms X, and should apologise.

The ombudsman also said the authority's complaint handling caused "avoidable distress and time and trouble".

The council apologised and said it sincerely regretted its "shortcomings".

The ombudsman said it had failed to provide Y's education, health and care plan between September 2023 and July 2024.

The child was home schooled by the mother from June 2022 to September 2023, but was then due to transfer to a secondary school as part of a council education, health and care (EHC) plan.

But the mother told the council's SEND (special educational needs and disabilities) team that the school could not meet Y's needs.

The council said the situation would be reviewed in October and that Ms X's preferred school had no available places, but in the end she did not send her child to the recommended school.

Months of complaints from Ms X and correspondence between the relevant institutions continued until the following Summer.

The ombudsman found that the council failed to secure the education as part of its care plan and caused Ms X "confusion and frustration" because of its "poor complaint response".

The report said the authority should "remedy the injustice" with a payment of £6,000 to reflect Y's lost SEP, and one of £500 to Ms X to reflect her "avoidable distress and time and trouble complaining".

In a statement a council spokeswoman said: "While alternative tuition was provided, we accept it did not fully meet the requirements of Y's EHC plan.

"We are pleased to note that Y has been attending special school placement since September 2024."

She said a "great deal of improvements and development" had taken place in the last 18 months, and since the failings in this case the council had taken "corrective action", and made more approved tuition providers available "to ensure timely delivery of support".

It had also "improved clarity" in its complaint processes, and was "committed to improving services for children with EHC plans".

The council was previously ordered to pay a mother £9,400 after her autistic son was deprived of education for more than a year.