Suffolk County Council’s decision-making process criticised by Ombudsman over cancellation of audio books

Suffolk County Council has been criticised by the Local Government Ombudsman for flaws in the way it decided to withdraw some subscriptions for an audio book service for the blind.

The Council has accepted all the recommendations in the report, including updating staff training and contacting all the 250 blind or visually impaired people whose Talking Books subscriptions were stopped. Impact assessments will be carried out for each of these individuals and it may be that the subscription will be reinstated for some of them.

The flaws in the process were highlighted in a report issued by Ombudsman Dr Jane Martin. Talking of the people whose subscriptions were stopped, Dr Martin says: “They will rightly feel aggrieved that they have lost out on an opportunity to influence a decision affecting them and to have a say in what and how services are provided to them. They may have had opportunities to join in normal and important aspects of personal life, such as education and leisure activities, diminished.”

The complaint was made through the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) which complained on behalf of seven blind or visually impaired adults about the Council’s decision to stop paying for them to have RNIB’s Talking Books service. Talking Books is an audio books service provided by the RNIB on an annual subscription (currently £82), designed to meet the needs of people who are blind or visually impaired.

The Ombudsman found fault in the way the Council decided to cancel the complainants’ subscriptions, in particular, that it:

•         did not properly consider the likely impact on disabled service users

•         did not consider the need to promote equality of opportunity and to take account of disabilities, even where that involves treating disabled people more favourably than others

•         failed to carry out individual consultation or assess the impact on individual users before it decided to set, retrospectively, a ‘minimum usage’ of 20 books per user below which it would not fund a subscription

•         did not identify that it funded Talking Books under community care legislation

•         did not use the social care complaints procedure to respond to a complaint made by one complainant, and

•         did not consider carrying out social care assessments for those whose subscriptions it stopped.

A spokesman for Suffolk County Council said: "As the Ombudsman has made clear, we have acknowledged the findings and agreed to implement all the recommendations in this report.  We have already updated our training for staff - which includes providing further training on our equality duties.  We are looking at each case where subscriptions to Talking Books have been stopped and are contacting each of those people to assess the impact on them."

It will also offer social care assessments to everyone whose subscription it stopped and reinstate it if, following a social care assessment, there is an eligible social care need that a subscription could meet. Compensation will be paid, equal to the value of the lost subscription, to anyone who has the service reinstated.

Neasa MacErlean