London Borough of Hillingdon (20 011 694)

Statement Not upheld Disabled children 19-Aug-2021

Summary: Mr X complained the Council would not financially reimburse him for respite care it agreed to provide for his disabled son Y. We find the Council was not at fault.

Birmingham City Council (20 007 084)

Statement Upheld Disabled children 13-Aug-2021

Summary: Miss D complained about the Council’s failure to provide appropriate social care support for her son. She also complained the Council delayed dealing with her complaint. We find the Council was at fault for its communication with Miss D about whether to reimburse her for the second carer she had employed. The Council has agreed to apologise to Miss D for the injustice caused.

Kirklees Metropolitan Borough Council (21 005 768)

Statement Upheld Disabled children 10-Aug-2021

Summary: The Council is at fault for delaying considering a complaint at stage one of the children’s statutory complaints procedure. The Council has agreed to complete its stage one investigation without further delay and will offer to make a payment to the complainant to remedy the time and trouble its delay has caused her.

London Borough of Richmond upon Thames (21 004 772)

Statement Upheld Disabled children 03-Aug-2021

Summary: The Council is at fault in that it unreasonably delayed responding to Ms B’s complaint about the support provided to her disabled child. The Council has agreed to complete its Stage 2 investigation without further delay and to offer to make a payment to Ms B to remedy the unnecessary uncertainty and distress the delay has caused her.

Hampshire County Council (21 004 496)

Statement Upheld Disabled children 28-Jul-2021

Summary: The Council is at fault for delaying considering a complaint at stage two of the children’s statutory complaints procedure. The Council has agreed to complete its stage two investigation without further delay and will offer to make a payment to the complainant to remedy the time and trouble its delay has caused him.

London Borough of Islington (20 011 052)

Statement Upheld Disabled children 22-Jul-2021

Summary: The Council did not properly consider Mr C’s application for a blue badge relating to his four-year-old son’s autism. Its approach to processing applications for children with hidden disabilities is not in line with guidance, and in this case, it caused injustice to Mr C in the form of distress by not processing his application correctly. The Council has agreed to reconsider Mr C’s application.

Derbyshire County Council (20 005 095)

Statement Upheld Disabled children 20-Jul-2021

Summary: Mrs X complains the Council withdrew 80 hours a year of mentoring support for her son without properly assessing his care needs. The Ombudsman finds the Council was at fault for ending the mentoring support when Mrs X refused to accept funding via direct payments. The Council will apologise, make a financial payment for the mentoring support funded by Mrs X including a shortfall of 40 hours and make a payment to acknowledge the distress caused by the Council’s faults.

Isle of Wight Council (21 000 690)

Statement Upheld Disabled children 29-Jun-2021

Summary: We uphold this complaint. The Council delayed considering a complaint at stage two of the children’s statutory complaints procedure. The Council has agreed to complete its stage two investigation without further delay and will offer to make a payment to the complainant to remedy the time and trouble its delay has caused her.

West Sussex County Council (20 001 685)

Report Upheld Disabled children 24-Jun-2021

Summary: Mrs X complained the Council refused to assess her adopted son, Y, for direct payments or respite care. Mrs X also complained Y was out of full-time education since February 2020.

Bristol City Council (20 010 071)

Statement Not upheld Disabled children 15-Jun-2021

Summary: Ms D complains about several interconnected matters involving the Council’s children’s services and the support offered to her and her disabled child. We have discontinued our investigation as the Council has agreed to further investigate the complaint via a statutory procedure for complaints about children’s services.