TWO families will be receiving £6,000 compensation from the council after autistic teenagers in the town have been denied the speech and language therapy they needed for three years.

An investigation was launched when the parents of one of the teenagers contacted the Ombudsman in 2011 after discovering their son had not been receiving the specialist therapy since 2009.

The report then uncovered another 14 teenagers had missed out on therapy when NHS Warrington stopped providing the service to teenagers in late 2009 because of financial constraints without informing either the families or the council.

Council officers had thought the service was delayed because of staffing problems at NHS Warrington but when the council wrote to the family it wrongly told them that speech and language therapy was a health provision and not its responsibility.

Up until 2009, the teenager had received specialist therapy three times a year as part of his statement of special educational needs which the council had a legal duty to ensure was provided.

A second family had turned to private therapy sessions due to the lack of support.

Steve Edwards, the council’s assistant director of universal services, said: “On this occasion we failed badly, the result was unacceptable and we apologise sincerely.

“We have already carried out a thorough investigation of what went wrong.

“As a result of this we have put into place a comprehensive action plan to ensure greater robustness in our procedures in future.

“We are also exploring whether any other families are affected by the same or similar issues.

“We have learned important lessons and we’re confident this will never happen again.”

The 14 other young people affected by the lack of provision will receive the therapy and support they require as specified in their statements.

The Warrington Clinical Commissioning Group and Bridgewater Community Healthcare NHS Trust will also jointly be paying £500 to one of the families.

Steve Sutcliffe, interim chief officer for Warrington Clinical Commissioning Group, also apologised for the mistake.

Julie Mellor, parliamentary and health service ombudsman, added: “This is a prime example of how, by coming forward to complain, a couple have achieved justice not only for their own child but also for others with autism who were denied speech and language therapy.

“Complaining about public services takes courage and determination.

“But it can achieve results that have a positive impact that goes beyond just one individual case and results in improvements that affect many others.”

Kamini Gadhok, chief executive of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists, said: “The general lessons to learn are, first, that across the country hard financial decisions are having real impacts on the lives of real people: and second, that there is no substitute for effective joint working and planning between health services and local government.”