A council has been ordered to pay compensation and apologise for the "bureaucratic and unsympathetic" way it treated two severely disabled teenagers and their families.

North Lanarkshire was told to pay £1000 to each of the two families after their children missed out on 10 months of special-needs education.

Professor Alice Brown, Scottish Public Services Ombudsman, condemned the authority and its education department for causing "anxiety and distress".

She said the case illustrated "the obligation on public authorities to look beyond the narrow letter of the law when designing and delivering their services".

The case dated back to 2001, when the parents of the boys, then aged 16 and 17, complained to the council about a new bus operator taking their sons to and from school. Both children were wheelchair users.

The 16-year-old, identified as child B, suffered from cerebral palsy and spastic quadriplegia, and required constant care. The other boy, child D, had a severe learning disability and a steel spinal rod.

The parents claimed they were being "strapped in" and their toilet and other needs were not being met. Child B's parents said he was "terrified".

The council said it could find nothing wrong with the bus, and if the parents did not want their sons to travel on it they might lose their placements at school. The parents then began ferrying their sons to school themselves - round trips of 80 and 64 miles.

The dispute deteriorated and resulted in both boys losing their places at school and not returning for 10 months. The absence meant they missed speech therapy, physiotherapy and therapy pool sessions.

Prof Brown said the council had been reluctant to think of ways to solve the problems and failed to make "two very vulnerable young men" their first priority.

Alex Neil, SNP MSP for Central Scotland, who referred the case to the ombudsman, called for the disciplining of the council official involved in the case for treating people "with contempt". He said North Lanarkshire was more like the Kremlin than a council, with a complaints procedure that was "a joke".

John Fleming, head of central services at North Lanarkshire, said the council had only received the report, but felt a draft had contained "fundamental flaws".

He said: "It will be disappointing if we find the ombudsman has not addressed those concerns.

"However, the ombudsman acknowledges that, even before the matter was referred to her, the council was providing services that went beyond anything the law requires."