Disabled child had to live in unsuitable home far longer than necessary because councils made “catalogue of errors” when adapting home, Ombudsman finds

A child with significant and complex needs had to live in an unsuitable home for far longer than necessary because Bromsgrove District Council and Worcestershire County Council made a number of errors when adapting a home to their needs, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has found.

The councils recognised they had “missed opportunities” to address the child’s mother’s concerns more promptly, and agreed to pay the financial remedies recommended by the Ombudsman.

Outlining the background to the case, the Ombudsman said the child and their family had been living in a home that did not meet their needs.

Bromsgrove accepted the family was therefore homeless and a property was found that could be adapted.

However, work to adapt the property, which was funded by the councils and the NHS, took longer than it should have done to complete.

The Ombudsman noted: “The home also needed significant further alterations because those that were done did not meet the child’s needs. Because of this, the child had to spend six weeks in respite care away from their family while the extra changes were made.”

The Ombudsman’s investigation identified the following “catalogue of issues” with the work:

• a bedroom that was too small to accommodate access all the way around the child’s hospital bed;
• limited space for equipment; and
• a failure to consider the child would need a bigger bed as they grew.

At the time the events took place, Bromsgrove was the housing authority and a Worcestershire County Council-owned company called Worcestershire Children First delivered services for children in Worcestershire.

To remedy the injustice caused, the district council agreed to pay the child’s mother £2,000 to acknowledge the “distress and frustration” caused by its delays and poor communication, and the county council agreed to pay £4,000 to acknowledge the injustice caused by the failure to ensure the initial plans met her child’s needs.

Further, the Ombudsman revealed both councils are to 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”.

Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, Amerdeep Somal, 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.

“When dealing with major schemes such as these, involving multiple different agencies, councils should provide a single point of contact for people to feed in their views and so that any concerns can be addressed at the earliest opportunity.

“I am pleased the councils agreed to my recommendations to put things right for the family, and to improve the way they work together on schemes to arrange major adaptations for people with disabilities.”

Bromsgrove District Council and Worcestershire County Council said in a joint statement: “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."

Lottie Winson