Northumberland County Council (05C07195)

Adult care services                      Maladministration causing injustice

18 April 2006

‘Miss Stone’ (not her real name for legal reasons) has spina bifida and uses a wheelchair. She wanted a stairlift installed so that she could get upstairs, and her doctor asked the Council to assess her needs. Miss Stone’s mother says that the Council telephoned to say that there would be a delay of six to nine months before an assessment could be made. Mrs Stone complained to the Council.

The Ombudsman’s investigation found that there was nothing inherently unreasonable about the Council’s priority system for assessments, but the evidence demonstrates that people who may have considerable needs, but who do not come within the priority categories, may have to wait a very long time to be assessed. The Ombudsman said “In fact the prediction reported by Miss Stone’s mother seems remarkably optimistic, as the evidence from the Council shows that delays well in excess of one year seem to be the norm rather than the exception in her area.”

Despite what appears to be national problem with the recruitment and retention of occupational therapists, the Council has not referred to this difficulty as a factor in this case. The Council’s delays are therefore unacceptable and clearly maladministration.

The Ombudsman’s predecessor was critical of the Council in a previous case, and she said it was particularly disappointing that in the interval the Council appeared to have made so little progress in the right direction.

However, the Council has agreed to consider urgently how to make immediate inroads into its backlog of cases, including Miss Stone’s, and has agreed to provide the Ombudsman within one month with a report upon its progress. The Council has also agreed to provide a report within six months on the monitoring of new arrangements with Care Trust staffing and its impact on waiting times.

Finally, the Council has agreed to compensate Miss Stone financially and has agreed that senior officers should apologise personally to her and to her mother. The Council may also compensate other complainants who have been similarly disadvantaged by delays on the Council’s part.

Date Updated: 30/01/09