North East Lincolnshire Council (13 003 200)
Category : Children's care services > Child protection
Decision : Upheld
Decision date : 12 Jun 2015
Summary
Complaint from a woman that the council failed to provide her with support when she asked for help. She says the council failed to involve her in decision making for her family and it failed to treat her baby daughter correctly. She also complains that the council failed to consider her complaints or deal with her subject access request.
The complaint
Complaint from a woman that the council failed to provide her with support when she asked for help. She says the council failed to involve her in decision making for her family and it failed to treat her baby daughter correctly. She also complains that the council failed to consider her complaints or deal with her subject access request.
Finding
The Ombudsman upheld the complaint and found fault causing injustice.
Recommendations
The council should:
- apologise to the woman and her mother for the fault found
- pay the woman £6,000 to reflect the severe avoidable distress, anxiety, justifiable outrage and loss of opportunity she suffered as a result of the council's one-sided handling of the case and its disproportionate actions in removing her daughter without following proper procedures. The injustice lasted until a court decided different residence arrangements for the daughter than those preferred by the council
- pay the woman's mother £1,000 to reflect the significant distress and justifiable outrage its removal of her granddaughter caused her over the same nine month period
- review its policies and procedures to ensure that, where a child has both parents, both parties are involved in assessments of the child, unless doing so would put the child at risk of harm, and that both parties are invited to sign the assessments.
We also recommend the council arranges training for relevant staff to remind them:
- of the appropriate procedures to be used in cases where children are deemed to be risk
- of the need to ensure the views of both parents are recorded in assessments and that they are invited to sign them
- that clear records are kept of management decision where one party is preferred over another in cases where custody is an issue, and
- that both parties are informed of such decision unless to do so would put a child at risk.
We further recommend the council places a copy of this report on the children's files in order to help answer any questions they may have regarding these matters when they are older.
The council has agreed to carry out these recommendations.