Lancashire County Council (16 015 248)
Summary
Ms X complains the Council has failed to find Y, who has severe learning difficulties, suitable long-term accommodation.
The complaint
Ms X complains the Council failed to meet Y's care . In particular, she says the Council has:
- taken too long to find him suitable long-term accommodation
- failed to meet his care needs while he lives in temporary respite care
- failed to communicate with her over his care
Finding
The Ombudsman upheld the complaint and found fault causing injustice.
Recommendations
To remedy the injustice cause, the Council has agreed to:
- ensure it finds Y suitable long term accommodation as soon as possible. The Council says it has now identified a property for Y. It should provide us with an action plan with timescales. This should set out what action it intends to take to ensure Y is moved to the accommodation as soon as possible. It should provide a monthly report to us until Y is placed.
We also recommend, within three months of the final report the Council:
- assesses what additional provision Y needs in the interim to make the Short Breaks Service suitable to meet his needs and put this in place;
- reviews Y’s Education, Health and Care Plan. This should include a review of his educational and care needs and how best these should be met. It should then give Ms X a formal decision on whether it intends to amend or cease Y’s Plan to enable her to have a right of appeal to the Tribunal;
- pays Ms X £2,500 for her to use for Y’s benefit to support his educational, social, language and behavioural needs; and
- apologises to Ms X and pays her £500 to acknowledge the distress and time and trouble she has been put to by the Council’s faults, for the lost opportunity to appeal to the Tribunal in 2016 and for the delay in her right to appeal in 2017.
We recommend the Council produces a detailed action plan setting out how it intends to comply with each of our recommendations with defined timescales.
Ombudsman satisfied with Council's response: 16 March 2018.