A mother of an autistic child has been paid more than £3,000 by Salford city council over failures which resulted in him missing four months of school. The compensation was awarded by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, who found there was 'delay and poor communication' by the council over the issuing of the child's education and health care plan (EHCP).
There was also a failure by the council under the terms of the Children and Families Act 2014 to provide alternative education for the boy once the authority was aware that he had been out of school for 15 days. The Ombudsman reported that the boy, named as 'B' in the report, was diagnosed with autism in 2018. He experiences extreme agitation in noisy and busy environments.
His mother, 'Mrs X', said that B stopped attending School 'C' in early December 2020 because of his medical needs and inability to cope at school. The council received a request for a special educational needs (SEN) assessment in late December 2020 - when the council became aware of B's non-attendance at school.
