West London parents have won £23,000 after they were left to sort out education and therapy the council should have arranged for their daughter with special needs.

Richmond Council’s children’s services contractor previously said the girl had been given “extremely poor service”.

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman report found the burden was left on the girl’s unnamed parents, referred to as Mr and Mrs B, to sort out education the council should have been arranging after she stopped going to her private school. 

The council finished an education plan for the girl, named C in the report, in October 2019. The report said the council knew C was out of school for several weeks at the start of autumn term but failed to find out what education she was getting. Mr and Mrs B paid for home tuition for C while appealing her education plan, which went to a tribunal in June and July 2020.

Mr and Mrs B spent around £29,000 on one-to-one tuition for C between August 2020 and January 2021, although the report said this was “excessive” as there was suitable tuition for around 20 per cent of this cost.

The contractor consulted with several schools to see if any were suitable for C but didn’t identify an alternative placement for her. The ombudsman said C’s education may have been “sub-optimal” during this time.

The contractor also agreed to fund speech and language therapy and a clinical psychologist for C. But the ombudsman found the contractor at fault for not repaying some of the money the parents spent on providing this therapy, along with a delay in agreeing to fund C’s occupational therapy.

The contractor emailed the parents in April 2021 saying it would put a senior manager in charge of C’s case due to her receiving “an extremely poor service” and initially offered to pay £21,000.

But the ombudsman has now ordered the contractor to fork out £23,000. The report said: “In addition, the council has agreed its contractor will seek to learn lessons from this complaint. I welcome the contractor’s comments on writing to Mr and Mrs B at the first stage of the complaints procedure where it set out certain improvements.

“It has agreed in addition that will also ensure relevant staff are briefed at a team meeting or equivalent about the findings in this case. That briefing must include a reminder that staff must act promptly on receipt of a SEND tribunal decision to put in place the provision outlined in a final amended [education plan].”

A spokesperson for Richmond Council said: “Richmond Council and Achieving for Children take the findings of the Ombudsman seriously and have already followed up the recommendations from the report.”