Both Worcestershire County Council and Bromsgrove District Council made a number of errors when adapting a home to meet the child’s needs.
This meant the work took longer than it should have done and the child had to spend six weeks in respite care away from their family.
At a full council meeting next week, county councillors will discuss a Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman investigation into the case.
The county council has agreed to pay £4,000 to the child’s mother to acknowledge the injustice caused by its failure to ensure the initial plans met her child’s needs.
Bromsgrove council has agreed to pay £2,000 to acknowledge the distress and frustration caused by its delays and poor communication.
READ MORE: Worcestershire County Council warned by Local Government Ombudsman
In addition, both councils will share refunding the cost the mother paid for her private occupational therapy and architect reports, and will also pay £500 each to acknowledge the direct impact on the child of their failings.
Amerdeep Somal, the ombudsman, said: “The councils focused too much on achieving adaptations that would fit within permitted development rights, rather than on providing a home that was suitable for the child’s needs.
“Because of this the child and their family spent far too long living in a place that was fundamentally not good enough.
“The councils did not include the mother in key discussions, and did not ensure she fully understood what was happening, and it’s certainly possible that the councils have now spent significantly more on changing the property following the initial works than they would have done had they got it right in the first place.”
In a joint statement, the two councils said: “We have wholeheartedly apologised for our failure to ensure that the new home proposed for their family was properly adapted to meet their needs.
“We recognise that there were missed opportunities to address the concerns more promptly, and we understand the negative impact this had on their family while the issues were being resolved.
“We are committed to learning from this experience and will implement policy changes across both councils to improve communication between applicants and those involved in the housing adaptation process.”