A North London council has been forced to pay a family more than £28,000 after a watchdog found it left an autistic teenager without crucial educational support for over two years. Camden Council admitted fault following a protracted legal battle and subsequent investigation by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO).
A Two-Year Battle for Legal Entitlements
The case centres on a 17-year-old boy, referred to only as 'Y', who has autism, dyslexia and requires support for social skills. He was legally entitled to a home-based education package known as 'Education Otherwise Than At School' (EOTAS), mandated by a Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) tribunal in 2022.
However, Camden Council appealed the tribunal's decision, arguing it was a mistake and that the boy should be educated in a school setting. This appeal placed the case in limbo for months, suspending the council's legal duty to provide the support. The local authority's appeal was ultimately thrown out in September 2023.
During this period and beyond, the teenager missed out on a comprehensive package of support. It was not until May 2025 that he finally received all the interventions listed in his original plan. These missing provisions included 15 hours of weekly online lessons, specialist dyslexia and Speech and Language Therapy (SLT), mentoring through gaming, and physical activity sessions.
Ombudsman Finds 'Significant Distress' and Injustice
The LGSCO investigation concluded that the council's actions caused injustice to both the teenager and his mother, known as 'Miss X'. The watchdog stated they experienced "significant distress" during their struggle to secure the necessary support.
The report was critical of the council's "confused" approach and "significant delays" in handling the mother's formal complaint, which was first lodged in October 2023. It noted that Camden forced the boy's mother to wait "much longer than necessary" for a resolution and caused frustration by repeatedly changing its position.
The council only revised its stance and admitted fault two years after the initial tribunal ruling. In response to the Ombudsman's findings, Camden Council was ordered to pay the family £13,860 to compensate for the lost educational provision and for the time and trouble caused by the poor complaint handling.
Compensation and Promised Reforms
Separately, the council reimbursed the mother £24,180 for private tutoring costs she incurred between October 2022 and October 2023 while fighting for her son's support. The total financial remedy paid to the family amounts to approximately £28,000.
The Ombudsman has instructed Camden to review its complaint-handling processes within three months of the ruling, which was issued on 25 November 2025. The council says it has since appointed a dedicated officer to manage complex Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) cases.
A Camden Council spokesperson said: "We would like to again extend our apologies to the family for the distress caused. We recognise the impact that the failure to deliver the child's full educational provision had on both the child and their parent in this case, and we are committed to putting it right."
The spokesperson added that the council has acted on the Ombudsman's recommendations, including offering to meet the family, and is strengthening its processes to prevent similar failures in the future.
