(UK) Luton: Mom gets $3,000 when council fails to provide school place
- The end of childhood
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Dec 5, 2025, Luton Today: Luton council told to pay £2.3k [$3,000] to mum for failing to provide suitable education for autistic son
The borough council has been told to apologise and pay a total of £2,300 ]$3,000] to a Luton resident for failing to provide a suitable education for her autistic son.
The parent complained to the local authority saying it caused him to miss out on education, affected their mental health and meant she was unable to work, according to a local government watchdog.
The son finds the school environment challenging, and struggles to follow rules and requests from adults while there, said the local government and social care ombudsman.
“When distressed, this leads to difficult behaviours. He was issued with a new education health and care plan (EHCP) in November 2023 and started to attend a named school in September 2024.
“On the third day, the school wrote to the mother saying he was permanently excluded. LBC is responsible for education provision from the sixth day after the exclusion.
“The school cancelled the permanent exclusion, after identifying a potential education provider for him. She agreed to this placement being pursued. An annual review of his EHCP was held in October 2024.
“She stated she’d agreed to a referral to the alternative provider, but she highlighted this would still only be part-time provision and she would need to care for him at other times. The mother made clear she didn’t want to home educate her son.”
The potential provider was unable to recruit a member of staff in the area, explained the ombudsman. “Unless it could work with him from her home or it could make the provision over two days, instead of three, it couldn’t fulfil her son’s placement.
“There’s evidence in January 2025 LBC continued to seek another provider, which eventually resulted in provision being put in place. In this case, the son should have been provided with alternative education from October 4, 2024.
“The lack of provision from day six of his exclusion represents fault by the council. LBC was evidently aware that he wasn’t receiving an education while excluded, or following the cancellation of his exclusion.
“I recognise the local authority noted, at times, the mother didn’t respond to communications. But I found there was no lack of response in the period being considered that significantly affected the progress to find alternative education for him.
“He didn’t receive any alternative provision from the sixth day of his exclusion until the council responded to the complaint in January 2025. While the situation was difficult, the lack of provision represents fault by LBC.”
I understand he received no educational provision between October 2024 and January 2025, when she made her complaint, added the ombudsman. “Based on this and the son’s circumstances overall, I’ve recommended a remedy based on £2,000 per term, for one term.
“LBC should apologise in writing to them for the impact of the delay in providing alternative education and the delay sending her the outcome of his EHCP review. For the distress these delays caused to the parent, I recommend the council pays her £300.
“To recognise the delay in providing him with suitable education between October 2024 and January 2025, LBC should make a payment to her for him of £2,000. There was fault causing injustice.”
