Council pays out over boy's special needs failures

The boy's mother paid for a private tutor after believing her son was falling behind after he was told he could no longer attend school

The family of a child with special needs is to receive £3,900 from a council for failures involving his education.

Surrey County Council failed to provide the boy with suitable full-time education, causing him to miss valuable learning time, a government watchdog said.

His mother had to cut hours at work to care for her son who could not attend school over mental health concerns.

The council have apologised and said they take the findings of the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman "very seriously".

The mother of the boy - who was previously on a waiting list for an autism assessment - said the council failed to provide her son with proper education from when it was assessed he should no longer attend school.

This complaint was upheld following an investigation by the ombudsman, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

A spokesman for Surrey County Council said: “We take the findings from the ombudsman very seriously and we apologise for any distress the family experienced."

The ombudsman said it would not make further recommendations for service improvements to the council’s alternative education provision as these have been covered in “similar findings against the council in other cases in the recent past covering the same period”.