Liverpool Council “let the family down” when it denied teenage siblings with significant needs vital support, a senior officer has admitted.
An investigation by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman criticised the local authority for failing to ensure it could connect a family with a provider that could bring about the appropriate support for two children, who have multiple disabilities including visual impairments and complex communication needs. The probe led to the local authority being forced to pay out thousands of pounds in compensation.
Steve Reddy, director of children and young people’s services at Liverpool Council, told a meeting of its social care and health committee that the family had been failed by the authority. He said: “We have let the family down in this instance.”
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Mr Reddy said changes had been made in the directorate at the Cunard Building in a bid to tighten processes. The investigation was discussed by councillors last week.
It found that a complaint was raised by the teenagers’ mother that between July 2020 and January of this year, the council had refused to pay the correct level of direct payments to secure required support and as a result, had failed to meet her childrens assessed social care needs. The mother, known in the report as Miss X, said the council also failed to adequately deal with her complaint about the matter and then delayed putting things right after accepting fault.
The mother asked the council to give her a personal budget so she could source her own support. However, instead of the council giving the mother the £25 per hour it was prepared to pay its provider, it only allowed her to pay £8.21 per hour.
Miss X found this amount insufficient to commission the special support needed and felt that the support workers paid by the authority were not providing all the hours required, and staff were not appropriately trained. She complained to the council, but it still did not offer to give her the same amount it was paying the provider.
The siblings missed around two thirds of the provision they should have received for 18 months, with one teen missing out on average nine hours’ support and the other 12 hours each week.
Liverpool Council agreed to apologise to the mother and pay her £7,200 to acknowledge the missed support and distress caused to her children and a further £1,000 in response to the distress and uncertainty caused. It will also pay her £350 to recognise the uncertainty and time and trouble caused by its poor complaint handling.
Mr Reddy told the meeting: “All we can do is publicly apologise for letting the family down.” A Liverpool Council spokesperson said the authority “wholeheartedly” apologised for the errors in this case and fully accepted the findings of the investigation.
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