Cambridgeshire County Council pays £13k over boy's care failings

Cambridgeshire County Council accepted it had not provided a boy with the support and therapy needed

A mother has received more than £13,000 after a council failed to give her son specialist support.

She claimed Cambridgeshire County Council did not provide him with all that was set out in his Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP).

This included a transition plan for him to move from home tutoring to secondary provision, and not preparing him for adulthood.

The local authority has apologised and accepted it was at fault.

An EHCP is a legal document that sets out a child's needs and what support is needed.

A Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman's report, analysed by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, said the boy's mother, Mrs X, objected to the council's choice of secondary school for her son in 2018, and a 2020 appeal was dismissed.

He had stopped attending school in 2018 and the council began providing 10 hours of home tuition a week two years later.

Care plan 'not delivered'

The 2020 appeal tribunal maintained the council's chosen school was an appropriate place for him and recommended the council put in place a transition plan for him to move back to the school - but this was never put in place and he continued to be taught at home.

In 2023, Mrs X complained about this failure and that other specialist support set out in the EHCP had not been delivered.

This included speech and language therapy advice to staff supporting her son, a tutor with experience of her son's needs and advice and support through a clinical psychologist.

As a result, she paid more than £4,000 to organise private therapy.

She also complained about delays to reviewing the support and claimed there had not been consideration of what was needed to prepare him for adulthood.

'Avoidable distress'

The county council accepted it was at fault for failing to provide all that he needed and for not completing an early annual review.

It also accepted it had failed to complete the transition plan.

The ombudsman said the boy had been receiving a "comparable to full-time education" at home, but due to not receiving the other support and therapy, his education was "not meeting the same standard it should have been".

It recognised the council's acceptance of its faults and said the authority had since appointed someone to support the boy.

The council was told to pay £750 to Mrs X in recognition of the "avoidable distress", a £4,050 reimbursement for private psychologist sessions and £8,400 in recognition of her son's missed educational provision.

A county council spokesman said it had apologised for its failures.

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