04 Apr Council to apologise to Southend mother for not considering her needs as a carer
Southend council has agreed to apologise to a mother for twice failing to assess her needs as a carer despite agreeing to do so in a previous investigation by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.
In the previous complaint, the mother told the Ombudsman Southend-on-Sea City Council had not carried out a parent carer’s assessment when looking at her son’s needs as a disabled child. It agreed to the Ombudsman’s recommendation to assess her needs as a carer.
However, the Ombudsman’s second investigation has found the council did not carry out a proper assessment. It did not consider her needs as a carer, or take into account that the mother herself had disabilities, and instead again focused on her son’s needs.
The Ombudsman also said that when the mother complained to the council, it failed to consider her concerns under the statutory three stage children’s complaints process, as it should have done.
Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, Ms Amerdeep Somal said:
“Southend council failed to conduct a proper assessment of the mother’s needs despite agreeing to do so with my office.
“The assessment it did make, did not properly consider the impact on her mental health and wellbeing of being a carer for a disabled child. This raises my concerns that the council is not fully aware of its duty to ensure both the needs of service users and their carers are fully considered when carrying out combined assessments.
“I have asked the council to carry out some training with its officers about completing such assessments, and to remind them about those complaints which fall under the Children’s Statutory Complaints Process. I hope this will ensure complaints are dealt with appropriately in future.”
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman remedies injustice and shares learning from investigations to help improve public, and adult social care, services. In this case the council has agreed to apologise to the mother for not carrying out a proper carer’s needs assessment. It will also pay her £1,000 to recognise her distress and the time it has taken to complain twice.
It will also arrange for an independent social worker to carry out a standalone assessment for her.
The Ombudsman has the power to make recommendations to improve processes for the wider public. In this case the council will carry out training on how to conduct a parent carer’s needs assessment and issue a briefing note to all relevant staff detailing complaints that fall within the scope of the statutory children’s complaints procedure.
