Family awarded almost £5,000 after North Northamptonshire Council's special needs provision failures

A council will pay a family nearly £5,000 in compensation after failings were found in the way it dealt with the case of a young person with special needs.

North Northamptonshire Council said it accepted the findings of the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO), which received complaints from the family.

The LGO found the young man had missed out on some of the provision he was entitled to for two-and-a-half academic years from September 2020.

As part of that, he also missed four months of any provision at all from September 2022 until December 2022.

The authority was told to pay £4,400 for not providing the full provision in the young man’s education, health and care (EHC) plan – which set out his needs and what arrangements were required – for the two-and-a-half academic years.

The money will be used for his benefit.

It will also pay his mother £300 “to acknowledge the frustration and distress” caused by the problems caused by the council’s actions.

She was also awarded a further £200 “as an acknowledgement of the time and trouble she has spent pursuing this complaint”.

A North Northamptonshire Council spokesperson said: “We accept the findings of the report and apologise to the family for any distress caused. We will be carrying out the agreed actions as outlined by the Ombudsman and have put measures in place to strengthen our processes regarding dealing with EHC plans and communicating with those concerned.”