Council’s failures left disabled child in chronic pain for three years, watchdog finds

Lambeth council argued that a lack of affordable housing made finding suitable accommodation for Child Y ‘an impossible task’. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

A severely disabled child missed out on vital NHS surgery and was left in chronic pain for more than three years because a council failed to move them out of unsuitable housing despite repeated pleas from health professionals, a watchdog has ruled.

Lambeth council in London was fined £20,000 by the local government and social care ombudsman for a catalogue of service failures and administrative errors that left the child unsafe and in “significant and avoidable distress” and her mother at risk of serious injury.