A mother has been paid £2,600 after the council caused her ‘significant anxiety’ by failing to provide her autistic son with the right tutoring.
An investigation by the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) found Wokingham Borough Council did not secure the right tutoring for the boy, referred to as Y.
Y, who has autism, had been on an education and health care plan since 2020. This sets out the specialist needs of a child and the provision most suitable for them.
By 2023, the council agreed to fund 19 hours of online tutoring per week for Y, as well as 34 horse riding sessions, 25 occupational therapy and 29 speech and language therapy sessions.
But Mrs X wanted the tutoring to be face to face with a different provider – and informed the council her son would not be attending the sessions agreed with the first provider.
The council said it would consult with other tutoring agencies to identify an alternative, and found two by March 2023 – but there was no evidence that it offered this to his mother.
During this time, Mrs X remained firm in her position that her son would not suit online tutoring.
By May, several clinical psychology sessions for Y were cancelled because the council delayed payments to the therapy providers.
The Ombudsman ruled that on a balance of probabilities, the Council failed to offer the right tutoring to Y, despite identifying the right provider.
The report wrote: “This fault caused Y injustice as he missed education at the time, when he should have been preparing either for taking exams or gaining some qualifications.
“Mrs X was increasingly frustrated that the Council failed to support her efforts in securing suitable education for Y.”
Further, the council’s failure to pay for therapy services meant some of the sessions were cancelled, causing the mother and son ‘significant anxiety’.
Mrs X complained to the council about the non-delivery of the provision in August 2023 and received no response until May 2024.
The LGO ordered Wokingham Borough Council to pay a total of £2,600 to Mrs X and Y. This is made up of £1,400 to recognise the loss of education between March and June 2023, £1,000 to recognise the distress caused to the mother and son, and £200 for the ‘extra time and trouble taken to complain’ for Mrs X.
The LGO also recommended Wokingham Borough Council to remind staff dealing with complaints the importance of adhering to time-scales.
