Family awarded £5,300 after education faults

Wokingham Borough Council was told it had caused the boy and his mother "significant injustice"

A council paid out £5,300 to a family after a boy did not receive the appropriate support it had agreed he should have had for a year.

Wokingham Borough Council agreed to pay the money after multiple failures, including the boy not having the appropriate number hours of tuition for the entire 2022/23 academic year.

It had also agreed to supply the boy with a learning support assistant, who would help him for 30 hours a week, but his mother was left to supply that herself.

Prue Bray, the council's deputy leader and executive member for children's services, said it was "sorry for the stress and disruption this has caused the family".

It was also found to have not provided a "substantive response" to the boy's mother until she had brought her case to the LGO's attention nearly a year ago.

The LGO said the boy and his mother suffered a "significant injustice" as a result of the council's failings.

The authority itself proposed £4,700 was given to the family in recognition of the provision the boy missed.

It also will give £300 each to the mother and the boy to recognise the impact on them.

"We have since made changes, including having a SEND customer relations officer in the team who can prioritise responding to complaints and learning from families so we can continuously improve," Bray added.

"We're continuing to work with the family to make sure the child gets the right support and can thrive. We're also sharing what we've learned across our services to help prevent this from happening again.

"We know there's more to do, and we're committed to improving our SEND services and working with families to get the best for children and young people across our borough."