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Children and family services Maladministration causing injustice
28 September 2005
‘Mr Birch’ (not his real name for legal reasons) complained about the actions of the Council’s Social Services Department which had been involved with his young son. He was concerned with an alleged failure to correct errors on its file; with confidential information being sent to incorrect addresses; failure to use recorded delivery for letters to him; and failures to provide a ‘hearing loop’ for his wife at two Child Protection Review Meetings.
The Ombudsman found what she described as “serious maladministration” on two parts of the complaint: sending information to wrong addresses and in failing twice to meet Mrs Birch’s needs for assistance with hearing at important meetings about the Birches’ son.
The Ombudsman found maladministration causing injustice and asked the Council to pay £2,000 compensation to Mr Birch, which the Council agreed to do. The Ombudsman called for no further action beyond an assurance that every effort would be made to avoid a recurrence.
Date Published: 18/09/09
are in .pdf format. To view these files you will need the Adobe Acrobat Reader software. It can be downloaded below free of charge. Click To Download