Cambridgeshire mum's £5k payout after son misses out on nursery

The child missed out on educational opportunities according to the ombudsman

Cambridgeshire County Council has been told to pay a mum more than £5,000 after it failed to provide transport to take her son to nursery.

The mum, referred to as Miss X, said she was "extremely worried" her child had missed out on education.

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGO) also found the authority failed to organise any alternative support when the boy could not get to class.

The council said it had learnt lessons.

Transport 'essential'

A report published by the Ombudsman said Miss X's son - referred to as Y - was issued a Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan in December 2022, which named a specific nursery that could meet his needs.

The plan stated that providing transport for Y to attend the nursery was "essential".

The authority already provided a taxi for Y's older brother to attend the school where the nursery was based, however, the school said it did not have the resources to supervise Y in between the start of the school day and the later start of the nursery day.

The county council recognised a separate taxi and chaperone would be required for Y because of this, however, this was never arranged.

Miss X complained to the authority about the delay in the months that followed, but was told the authority was still trying to arrange the transport for Y.

In March 2023, it offered a taxi and chaperone for Y to be taken to nursery, but asked for Miss X to accompany him on the way home. Miss X said she had no way to get to Y's school so turned down the offer.

'Injustice'

The mum also complained she had contacted her caseworker multiple times about arranging Speech and Language Therapy, and Occupational Therapy for Y - specialist support that was stated as being needed in his EHC Plan.

The county council said the caseworker had been on sick leave and it did not have a record of these requests, but apologised for the lack of a response.

The report said: "I find the council at fault for not delivering the provision or taking any steps to satisfy itself that Y was receiving the specialist provision identified in his EHC Plan.

"This has caused an injustice to Y as he has missed out on educational opportunities and experiences that he would have gained."

The Ombudsman told the council to pay Miss X £4,800 to acknowledge the loss of education and the impact this will have had on Y, and a additional £500 for the impact on her family.

A spokesperson for the county council said: "We accept the Ombudsman's findings and are making contact with the complainant to apologise.

"Incidents such as this are rare, but we have taken on board any lessons learned to minimise the risk of anything similar happening again."