The mother of a vulnerable teenager housed in a tent by a local authority has spoken about how the experience broke her and her family, saying it left her feeling as if her life was out of control.

Speaking to the Guardian, the woman told of the anguish she went through after Cornwall council said her 17-year-old son was going to be given a tent to live in rather than other, suitable, accommodation.

She spoke after an investigation by the local government and social care ombudsman heavily criticised Cornwall council for its actions in regard to her son.

Cornwall council housed boy, 17, in a tent Read more

The ombudsman report concluded that the council tried to place responsibility for the situation on the boy, rather than provide the right support to a vulnerable child who was suffering from drug addiction and mental health problems.

“We were broken by this …. when you are in crisis or your child is suffering, that is a little baby you brought into this world. Even on a bad day when they are driving you insane, when in so much crisis and you cannot protect your child your whole life becomes out of control,” she said.

She added: “This is one of the people you love most in the world and they are not being protected and you are doing your best to get them help, but not getting the professional support you need. That is so frustrating. While you are in that maelstrom ... you don’t have any understanding of what is happening ... when you come out of it … you begin to make sense of what happened.”

The ombudsman, Michael King, said: “There is a long list of failures in this case which had dreadful consequences. But the starkest, and most worrying, element is the attitude shown towards his situation.”

The teenager, who cannot be named, spent five weeks in a tent over the summer of 2016, as well as four weeks in a static caravan and several nights sleeping rough after approaching Cornwall council for help.

At one point the council helped the boy pitch a tent. The ombudsman said the council had provided accommodation that was inappropriate and did not do enough to protect the 17-year-old from sexual exploitation or ill health. The teenager became emaciated and ended up in a psychiatric hospital. He was also sexually assaulted during this period.

His mother said: “Any local authority would have sat down and had a coordinated approach … and worked with the family to have a different outcome for that child, particularly with a family as supportive as ours. That is what let him down. At the end of the day social workers failed to coordinate a joined-up response to his needs.

“Boys and young men can be subject to child sexual exploitation – would they have put a female in a tent? Why did they have such a callous indifference to him? I don’t understand ... I think we have to look at a wider and bigger picture, and professionals must work together to get the best outcomes with families. At this stage that is all I can say.”

She said that a lack of mental health services for children had also added to her son’s difficulties. “It’s almost impossible to get a child seen by children’s mental health services these days.”

Her son had been placed in an adult hospital and, she said, he was assaulted three times while in a mental health facility. “He lost a front tooth as a result of being assaulted.”

A spokesperson for Cornwall council said: “Cornwall council accepts the report of the ombudsman and its findings. There were several shortfalls in the response of the council to the situation [the teenager] Mr B was in between August [and] October 2016. We have apologised to Mr B and to his mother for those failings. Although this was a unique and exceptional case, we will learn from it and do everything we can to prevent it ever happening again.”

• The mothers’s name has been withheld to protect her identity.