Mother awarded £2,400 over tutor battle for son

A mother has been paid £2,600 after her local council caused "significant anxiety" by failing to provide her autistic son with the right tutoring.

An investigation by the Local Government Ombudsmen (LGO) found Wokingham Borough Council did not secure the right tutoring for the boy, referred to as Y.

Y had been on an education and health care plan since 2020, setting out his specialist needs.

By 2023, the council agreed to fund 19 hours of online tutoring per week - but his mother wanted tutoring to be face to face.

The authority was also providing 34 horse riding sessions, 25 occupational therapy sessions and 29 speech and language therapy sessions.

The boy's mother, referred to as Mrs X, wanted the tutoring to be in person 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 the LGO said there was no evidence these were offered to Mrs X.

By May, a number of clinical psychology sessions for Y had been cancelled because the council delayed payments to the therapy providers.

The ombudsman ruled, on the balance of probabilities, the council failed to offer the right tutoring to Y, despite finding the right provider.

The LGO's report said: "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."

The report also found the council's failure to pay for therapy services, which led to sessions being cancelled, causing mother and son "significant anxiety".

Mrs X complained to the council about services not being delivered in August 2023 and did not receive a response until May 2024.

The LGO ordered Wokingham Borough Council to pay a total of £2,600 and recommended the authority remind staff dealing with complaints of the importance of adhering to time scales.

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