Boy with autism awarded £42,000 after family sued Scouts over discrimination

An 11-year-old boy with autism has reportedly been given £42,000 in compensation after his family claimed he was the victim of discrimination.

The BBC said Ben Gleeson joined the 10th Harpenden Scout Group in January 2015 – but was told he could not attend camps or participate in certain activities without supervision.

The matter was settled out of court after Ben’s family sued the Scout Association, the broadcaster reported.

Pack leaders are said to have told Ben he could not take part in athletics events and needed supervision at other events for health and safety reasons.

But his parents argued this was effectively a ban and sued under the Equality Act.

His mother Beverly Gleeson told the BBC: “Pretty much every event had to be supervised on a one-to-one basis, which I felt wasn’t inclusive.

“I felt he didn’t need it. He didn’t have this level of supervision at school. He’d made one mistake and then that was it, they wanted to make the rules and regulations. It was supposed to be a dialogue.”

The scout group disputed a number of the family’s claims, but the Scout Association told the BBC the handling of the case was “completely unacceptable”.

In a statement, it added: “While cases like this are very unusual, we know that action must be taken. We have established an inquiry to investigate what went wrong in this case.”

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