Hertfordshire County Council (24 017 440)

Statement Upheld Disabled children 26-Mar-2025

Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about delay in carrying out a care assessment and meeting the needs of Ms X’s child. Doing so would be unlikely to lead to a different outcome from that already offered by the Council, and we could not recommend the Council does anything more than the assessment it has already offered.

West Northamptonshire Council (24 016 602)

Statement Closed after initial enquiries Disabled children 18-Mar-2025

Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the Council’s decision not to renew her son’s Blue Badge. The Council has changed its decision so an investigation would not achieve anything more.

Derbyshire County Council (24 016 568)

Statement Closed after initial enquiries Disabled children 17-Mar-2025

Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about a children’s safeguarding risk assessment. We are unlikely to find she has been caused a direct significant injustice by the assessment, and we are unlikely to add to the Council’s reply to her complaint about communication issues.

Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council (24 017 333)

Statement Closed after initial enquiries Disabled children 14-Mar-2025

Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X complaint about delays in telling her about a grant process. We are unlikely to add significantly to the Council’s reply to her complaint.

London Borough of Wandsworth (23 017 554)

Statement Upheld Disabled children 07-Mar-2025

Summary: Ms X complains about delays by the Council and the Trust in completing an autism assessment for her child and for not fast‑tracking their assessment. We found fault with the initial referral, but the Trust has already remedied this. We also found fault with the triage panel meeting that led to some delay. We did not find fault by the Council and the Trust with how they considered Ms X’s fast‑track request. However, fault with a panel meeting led to some uncertainty about whether this could have been considered sooner. We have recommended the Trust and the Council take actions to address the faults and apologise for the distress caused to Ms X.

West Northamptonshire Council (24 001 146)

Statement Not upheld Disabled children 05-Mar-2025

Summary: Mrs B complained that the Council when considering a complaint about children’s services, failed to remedy the fact that the family had not been provided with appropriate support. We have not found fault with the Council.

Milton Keynes Council (23 000 946)

Statement Upheld Disabled children 27-Feb-2025

Summary: Mrs G complained about the decision by NHS Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes Integrated Care Board (the ICB) to reduce the night-time support for her child, D. She also complained about the way Milton Keynes Council (the Council) considered respite for the family and a preferred placement. We found fault in the way the ICB decided to reduce night-time support as it did not follow the recommendations from an independent assessment or properly consider the impact its decision would have on D’s parents. This likely caused D’s parents avoidable worry and distress. The Council did not provide enough support to meet the family’s needs but acted to put things right during our investigation. There was a lack of joined up working when assessing D’s health and social care needs. The ICB and Council have accepted our recommendations to complete a holistic review of D’s needs, apologise to Mrs G, make acknowledgement payments and improve their processes. We have now completed our investigation.

Southend-on-Sea City Council (23 004 755)

Report Upheld Disabled children 25-Feb-2025

Summary: Mrs X complained that an assessment of her son’s needs inappropriately depicted her wishes and feelings as negative and social workers did not communicate or engage with her appropriately. Mrs X also complained that the Council failed to carry out a proper parent carer’s needs assessment. We found there was no failure to engage and communicate with Mrs X and the statements made in the assessment amounted to professional judgements which we would not criticise. However, we found there was a failure to carry out a proper parent carer’s needs assessment. This was fault. The fault was significant and justified a public report because this was repeated fault which was not put right after a previous investigation we conducted found the same fault and recommended action to put it right. We also found that the Council failed to use the correct complaint process and its response to the complaint was significantly delayed. The failings in the assessment process and complaint handling meant a significant delay in assessing Mrs X to establish what support she may need and the matter has led to frustration and distress.

Coventry City Council (24 009 126)

Statement Upheld Disabled children 24-Feb-2025

Summary: The Council failed to properly explain its appeal decision in response to Ms X’s request for a Blue Badge. This has caused Ms X uncertainty about whether the Council considered her appeal properly. In recognition of the injustice caused, the Council has agreed to apologise, pay Ms X £150 and take action to prevent recurrence of the fault in future.

Cheshire East Council (24 016 404)

Statement Closed after initial enquiries Disabled children 22-Feb-2025

Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the actions of a Council officer in carrying out an assessment of the complainant’s son’s needs. This is because investigation would achieve nothing significant.