Ealing Council failed to ensure a child with special educational needs received therapy set out in their statutory support plan for most of an academic year, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has found.
The watchdog upheld a complaint against the London Borough of Ealing after finding it did not properly arrange speech and language therapy and occupational therapy for a child with autism, identified as Z, despite both being specified in the child’s Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan.
The plan, finalised in August 2024, required 15.75 hours of speech and language therapy and 22 hours of occupational therapy between September 2024 and July 2025. The ombudsman found Z received no speech and language therapy between September 2024 and January 2025 and missed 7.75 hours of the provision across the year. Occupational therapy was eventually delivered in full, but only towards the end of the period, with no sessions provided from August 2024 to May 2025.
The decision said the delays meant Z missed the opportunity to benefit from earlier intervention, including in the months before starting school. It also found the council’s communication with the child’s parent, referred to as Mr X, fell below expected standards and contributed to “significant frustration”.
As a remedy, Labour-run Ealing Council has agreed to apologise and pay Mr X £200 to acknowledge the frustration and uncertainty caused by the delays and poor communication, and a further £500 to recognise the impact on Z of the missed and delayed therapy.
An Ealing Council spokesperson told EALING.NEWS: “We sincerely apologise for our failings in this case and apologised to the family and paid them compensation in acknowledgement of the frustration and uncertainty caused by the delays in arranging therapy. Supporting residents with extra needs is a top priority for us.
“We have reviewed our commissioning arrangements to ensure, going forward, assessments take place in a timely manner and we are working to improve our communications.
“We have been rapidly improving our service, which was most recently recognised in an Ofsted special educational needs and disability (SEND) report in September.
“We recognise that there is still work to do to ensure all residents receive a consistently high level of service and we are committed to acting on feedback. There has been a national shortage of therapists which contributed to the delays and we are working closely with our partners to mitigate these challenges and ensure our services continue to improve so we deliver the very best experiences for all our children and young people with additional needs.”
