Council told to pay 'distressed' parent

A local authority has been told to improve its services after a parent was left distressed when requesting assessments of their child's education, health and care needs.

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman upheld a parent's complaint against Cambridgeshire County Council and said it found several faults in how the council handled their case.

The Ombudsman found "instances of carelessness" and said the council went "back on its word", requesting it to make a "symbolic payment" to the parent.

The council said it had apologised to the parent and was "fully committed" to addressing the issues raised.

The parent, referred to as Mx B, contacted the council in 2022 regarding assessments for their child.

The council began putting together an Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan, but Mx B complained about the extent of information it proposed to gather.

They asked for additional assessments to be commissioned in an "accessible format".

The council defended the extent of information sought, but in September 2022 it acknowledged it failed to secure social care advice and other assessments.

It apologised, offered Mx B a symbolic payment of £500, and said it would get specialist advice, commission private reports and a sensory occupational therapy assessment.

A few months later after another complaint was made, the council changed its position on the need for child sensory occupational therapy assessment.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service said there was more confusion in early 2023 about who would arrange an autism and mental health assessment for the child.

The ombudsman said cumulatively, "instances of carelessness added to Mx B's distress."

It said: "Part of good administrative practice in responding to complaints is that the council has a procedure in place to follow up on the commitments given – it did not do that here, and that was a fault.

"While it provided reasons for changing its mind, it should have recognised that it was going back on its word.

"It therefore needed to approach this matter pro-actively and sensitively. I found it did neither."

It said the council should send a written apology and make a further symbolic payment of £200.

Responding to the ombudsman's decision, a council spokesperson said such incidents were rare and improvements that were under way would help prevent anything similar happening in future.

The spokesperson added: "We maintain more than 8,000 EHC Plans and we're focused on delivering high-quality services that meet the needs of the children, young people and families in our county."

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