Kent County Council (24 012 466)

Statement Upheld Disabled children 24-Jun-2025

Summary: Miss B complained the Council has taken away respite support provided for her disabled son, without considering the impact on her. The Council was at fault for its failure to consider Miss B’s complaint through the children’s statutory complaint procedure. Because of the fault, Miss B suffered distress and frustration. The Council has agreed to apologise to Miss B and consider her complaint through the children’s statutory complaint procedure.

Surrey County Council (24 018 573)

Statement Upheld Disabled children 22-Jun-2025

Summary: Mr X complained the Council took too long to carry out an occupational therapy assessment for his child Y. We found delay by the Council which caused avoidable distress and frustration. The Council will apologise and make a symbolic payment to reflect the distress. It has already increased staffing levels in the relevant team and this will minimise the chance of recurrence.

Brighton & Hove City Council (24 022 967)

Statement Upheld Disabled children 20-Jun-2025

Summary: We have upheld this complaint about the Council’s response to the complainant’s request for social care services for her son. The Council has agreed to the Ombudsman’s request to address the matter through the statutory procedure for complaints about children’s social care. This removes the need for us to investigate.

London Borough of Hounslow (24 011 933)

Statement Upheld Disabled children 16-Jun-2025

Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about children services’ actions. We have upheld Ms X’s complaint as the Council has now agreed to follow the Children Act statutory complaints’ procedure.

Portsmouth City Council (25 000 034)

Statement Closed after initial enquiries Disabled children 15-Jun-2025

Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of his application for a blue badge for his daughter. This is because an investigation would be unlikely to add anything to the Council’s response or achieve a significantly different outcome.

London Borough of Barking & Dagenham (24 017 420)

Statement Upheld Disabled children 02-Jun-2025

Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the Council’s delay in carrying out an occupational therapy assessment. This is because the Council has already taken suitable action to remedy the matters.

Nottinghamshire County Council (24 010 774)

Statement Upheld Disabled children 27-May-2025

Summary: Mr B complained the Council delayed in assessing his family’s need for an extra bedroom for their disabled child. He also complained the assessment did not result in it supporting an application for a Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) to create an extra bedroom. We upheld the complaint, finding the Council at fault for delay and not sufficiently considering the impact of its proposal that Mr B should use a reception room as a bedroom instead. This caused injustice to Mr B as distress. We also found fault with a procedure the Council currently has in place with Mr B’s local housing authority (a Borough Council) to consider potential DFG applications. The Council accepted these findings and at the end of this statement, we set out the actions it has agreed to improve its service and remedy the injustice caused to Mr B.

Salford City Council (23 015 691)

Statement Upheld Disabled children 27-May-2025

Summary: Ms X complained the Council failed to properly carry out a child in need assessment in 2021 and wrongly declined to carry out assessments in 2022. She complained this led to a long delay in properly assessing their needs as a family and a delay in providing respite support. She also complained there was a delay in providing Direct Payments once support was agreed. A statutory investigation upheld the complaint and achieved a proper assessment for Ms X. We found there was fault by the Council and that there was outstanding injustice that warranted a remedy. We recommended an apology and a payment to recognise the distress and difficult circumstances Ms X was left in while support was not being provided.

Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council (24 022 007)

Statement Upheld Disabled children 21-May-2025

Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council failing to escalate Mrs X’s complaint about a failure to arrange payments for support workers properly. Doing so would be unlikely to add to the Council’s own investigation.

Kingston Upon Hull City Council (24 015 537)

Statement Upheld Disabled children 20-May-2025

Summary: The Council failed to investigate Ms X’s complaint using the children’s statutory complaints procedure when it should have done. It also delayed responding to Ms X’s complaint through its corporate complaints procedure. The Council’s faults have caused Ms X avoidable frustration and uncertainty. In recognition of this, the Council has agreed to apologise, pay Ms X £250 and carry out service improvements.