Somerset County Council has apologised to a family after three young children were left without any protection from their violent older brother.

The children's mother, known only as Mrs X, asked the council to provide a residential school placement for her eldest child, Mr Z, to prevent him from lashing out at her other children.

When the council failed to provide Mrs X with sufficient respite or protection for her younger children, she took her case to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, who upheld her complaint.

The council has now apologised to the family and paid out more than £8,000 in compensation.

The ombudsman exists to investigate allegations of "maladministration" and "service failure" in the public sector – in other words, instances in which it is claimed councils have not fully carried out their legal duties to taxpayers.

Mr Z, who is now an adult, had special educational needs (SEND) and a condition which made him "prone to sudden, unpredictable and violent outbursts".

He was also "significantly bigger and heavier than his mother and younger siblings".

Struggling to cope with Mr Z's size and outbursts, and wishing to protect her other three children, she asked the council to place him into a residential school.

Between 2015 and 2018, specialists working with the family witnessed the brother hitting and kicking his siblings, as well as throwing and using objects against them.

The siblings suffered physical injuries and were afraid of their older brother, often hiding to avoid him.

Mr Z's school also reported to the council that he had "punched a child in the face and attempted to strangle a fellow pupil", with a total of 36 separate incidents of violence involving the boy being recorded.

In another incident, a specialist nurse visiting the family had to intervene to rescue the mother when the older boy sat on her, pinning her down.

The same nurse witnessed an unprovoked attack on the boy's sister where he struck her with an object.

She said the level of support provided at the time was "not sufficient" to protect the siblings from further harm.

The boy was finally provided with a 52-week residential placement in May 2018.

The ombudsman concluded that the council failed to provide the respite it had assessed the family as needing for nearly three years.

It also found the council did not do enough to assess the risk the brother posed to the younger siblings, despite several reports from professionals and repeated calls from their mother that they were suffering both physical and psychological harm while their mother was unable to protect them.

Ombudsman Michael King said: "Throughout the three years the council had a wealth of evidence both the mother, and the boy's school, struggled to cope with the boy's violent and unpredictable outbursts.

"Despite this, it sought to blame the mother's parenting style rather than provide the respite the council itself assessed the family as needing.

"This left the family suffering both physical and psychological distress: the children have had to unlearn three years of coping behaviours, and the family was unable to enjoy quality time together.

"I am pleased the council has now agreed to my recommendations and hope the changes it has agreed to make will ensure disabled children and their families are safeguarded appropriately in future."

In addition to a formal apology, Mr King ordered the council to pay the family £8,250 in compensation – comprising £2,000 for the injustice caused to Mrs X, £2,000 for each of the three younger children and £250 for Mr Z.

Somerset County Council's SEND provision was inspected jointly by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in May 2020, with the regulators finding that "care provision across the area is well-received" and the offer of short breaks for children and young people was "strong and valued by families".

However, the council accepted that it had fallen short of its statutory duties in this instances, and confirmed it had both apologised to and compensated the family.

A spokesman said: "We work hard to get things right every time, but in this case we did not meet the standards we set for ourselves in the period up to 2018.

"We are a learning authority and have carefully considered, accepted and actioned all of the recommendations from the ombudsman, including giving an apology to the family.

"We welcome the positive feedback in our most recent SEND inspection in 2020 about the high quality of our current short break provision.

"We continue to regularly review our support offer with families, so that disabled children and their families get what they need at the right time."