Summary: The Council is failing to meet all Ms C’s eligible adult social care needs as an adult with a learning disability. This failure is negatively affecting Ms C’s relationship with her child and places a burden on her parents to provide constant support. The Council will apologise, make a symbolic payment, meet with the family, arrange appropriate support, and review its processes to improve future service.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I will call Mr B, says the Council has failed to provide support to his daughter (Ms C) in her parenting role. Ms C is an adult with autism and learning disabilities. Ms C needs support with managing her child’s developmental needs and behaviours, and the changes to these as her child grows. Mr B says Ms C does not fit a recognised category of service user, so Council staff are at a loss as to how to properly support her because it has no specific guidelines or policies for these clients. Mr B refers to Department of Health good practice guidance on working with parents with a learning disability, which he says provides excellent practices, yet the Council was unaware of the guidance and has failed to implement any of this good practice. Mr B says the Council passed the case between its adults and children’s departments with no one taking any proper responsibility to support Ms C as a parent with needs. The Council has referred to CAMHS and closed the case with a presumption of support, but no guarantee CAMHS will offer this.
2. Mr B says the Council’s failure to provide adequate support is widening the rift in Ms C’s relationship with her daughter, and it will continue to widen as the child gets older. Mr B and his wife have no free time as they need to be available to Ms C all of the time and try to fill the gap the Council is not filling. Mr B says this affects their relationship with Ms C.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We may investigate complaints from the person affected by the complaint issues, or from someone they authorise in writing to act for them. If the person affected cannot give their authority, we may investigate a complaint from a person we consider to be a suitable representative. (section 26A or 34C, Local Government Act 1974)
4. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. If there has been fault which has caused an injustice, we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
5. If we are satisfied with an organisation’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered:
• Information from Mr B, including during a telephone conversation.
• Information from the Council in response to my enquiries.
• The Care Act 2014 and associated statutory guidance.
7. Mr B and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments received before making a final decision.

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What I found

8. Under the Care Act 2014 the Council must complete an assessment for any adult with an appearance of need for care and support. If the Council decides the adult has eligible needs, it must produce a care and support plan of how it will meet those needs. The Council must review the care and support plan at least annually.
9. The Council has completed an assessment for Ms C and produced a care and support plan which it keeps under review.
10. I have seen the Council’s 2020 and 2021 reviews. These show the Council has a clear understanding of Ms C’s needs as a parent with a learning disability, in line with what Mr B has described to me.
11. The issue is how the Council will meet those needs. The 2021 review says parenting support is the primary need, Ms C needs strategies for managing if her child does not want to co-operate. The Council decided it would jointly fund from Adult Social Care and Children’s services for ten hours per week to meet this need. The Council provided this but accepted it had not worked well and in March 2021 there was no support in place. This was to be reviewed with the children’s social worker. It was agreed Ms C and her child would benefit from input from children and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) to support their relationship; the Council has made a referral.
12. The Council accepts in the 2021 review document that it has found it very difficult to find a service geared to the needs of parents with a learning disability.
13. The Council was due to review again in February 2022 but failed to do so. The Council has now started Ms C’s review and will offer Mr & Mrs B a carers assessment.
14. Mr B said support from the Early Help team was useful but had to stop when the case was stepped up to a Child in Need case. The Council says this support remains an option and it will discuss this with Ms C.
15. The Council is providing Ms C with practical parenting support. This includes helping Ms C with a schedule for keeping a clean and safe home; managing such tasks while her child is at school to free up time to spend together after school. But does not meet the meet for managing behaviour.
16. The Council accepts there is a gap in the care support market specific to parents with a learning disability. It is exploring the issue with its commissioners and other partners.

My analysis

17. I must now consider whether there was fault or service failure of the Council, which has caused an injustice to Ms C and/or Mr B. If so, I will consider what actions the Council can take to put things right.
18. The Council has correctly assessed Ms C’s adult social care needs, and its documents show a good understanding of her needs as a parent with a learning disability.
19. The problem the Council has is that Ms C’s needs do not fit what a standard care agency could meet. The Council needs some creative thinking on how it can meet Ms C’s care and support need for parenting. It has provided direct payments for ten hours per week, but has struggled to find someone who can work in the right way with Ms C. Although the Council has provided some support, it has failed to consistently meet the need for parenting support to manage the child’s behaviour over the last 16 months.
20. The 2021 review says Ms C urgently needs further parenting support, the referral to CAMHS will not meet this urgent need as there are long waiting lists, and no guarantees about what, if any, support it will provide. The Council has now referred to a service for adults with learning disability and will discuss this with Ms C and Mr B.
21. The Council’s failure to meet Ms C’s needs as a parent with a learning disability is having an impact on her relationship with her child. The family fear that the rift will continue to grow wider as the child ages if adequate support is not urgently provided.
22. The Council’s failure to meet Ms C’s assessed eligible need also has an impact on Mr B and his wife. They must step in and try to provide the support that is missing. Mr B says they get no free time to themselves. I recognise Mr B also has parental responsibility for the child under a child arrangement order from the court, so it is difficult to say how much this impact is caused by his parental responsibility or by the Council’s failures. Mr B has also had the time and trouble pursuing this complaint to try and get adequate support in place.

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Agreed action

23. To acknowledge the impact on Mr B and Ms C the Council will:
1. Apologise to Ms C for failing to consistently meet her eligible care and support needs over the last 16 months and make a symbolic payment of £500 to acknowledge the impact of that.
2. Make a symbolic payment to Mr B of £250 to acknowledge the impact on him.
3. Meet with the family to discuss what support is needed, what is currently available, and what could be provided. The Council needs to be open to commission care in a bespoke way if a relevant service is not available from its standard framework of providers or might need to be flexible in its normal processes. It might consider purchasing support from a psychologist, a parenting coach, or a nanny (not to take over the support but to help Ms C learn strategies).
4. After the meeting with the family the Council should consider any lessons learned about how to meet the needs of a parent with learning disabilities. The Council should review whether any changes are needed to relevant policies, staff guidance and staff training to reflect any lessons learned about sourcing bespoke provision and meeting needs that are not the generic ones they normally meet.
5. Arrange appropriate provision for Ms C’s unmet eligible care and support needs as soon as possible.
24. The Council should complete actions a-c within one month of the Ombudsman’s final decision. It should complete actions d & e within three months of meeting with the family. The Council should evidence its compliance to the Ombudsman.

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Final decision

25. I have completed my investigation; the agreed action is enough to acknowledge the impact on Mr B & Ms C, and to prevent future problems.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman