Ealing Council’s two-and-a-half year delay in responding to a request for help left a disabled woman at risk and effectively housebound, finds Local Government Ombudsman, Dr Jane Martin.

In her report, issued today, she concludes that the Council’s delay in moving her to suitable alternative accommodation caused considerable injustice, as she lived in very unsatisfactory conditions for far longer than she should.

The woman is a council tenant with three school-age children and is a permanent wheelchair user. Access to the block where she lives is by a security door, and the controls are too high for her to reach. This meant she was effectively housebound. She complained that the Council failed to respond adequately to her representations about her problems entering and leaving the block.

The Ombudsman finds that the Council was advised by a hospital as early as November 2008 of the difficulties the woman faced. It received numerous subsequent reminders, including an alert from the fire brigade that she was at risk in the event of fire.

The Council assessed her needs. It awarded her the second-highest level of priority for a transfer on medical grounds. It provided home care support and assistance with making bids for alternative properties.

However, the Ombudsman says: “I find maladministration by the Council because it:

• did not carry out any works to the door entry system despite telling a councillor that these had been done
• did not formally consider a suggestion that it modify the front door to the block, and
• did not refer the case to its Social Welfare Panel until September 2011 (after my office had requested it do so) even though it had identified this as a possibility two-and-a-half years earlier.”

The Council has now awarded the complainant the highest level of priority, backdated to May 2010. The Ombudsman recommends that the Council further backdates this award to May 2009 when the possibility of a referral to the Panel was first raised, and pays the complainant £2,000 to reflect the delay in her moving to suitable alternative accommodation.

Report ref no 10 016 936

Article date: 24 February 2012