Council apologises to mother over respite care

The ombudsman ruled the mother had to go through the "wrong complaints procedure"

A council has apologised to a mother after it took too long to offer suitable respite care.

The mother, known only as Miss X, complained to Shropshire Council in January 2024 about its failure to arrange suitable respite for her child, who is disabled, with complex learning difficulties.

This included overnight care when Miss X was admitted to hospital for a planned operation later that year.

The authority considered the complaint and apologised for the delay in arranging respite and said it was still searching for suitable provision.

In the following months, it held "child in need" meetings to try and resolve the situation.

In June 2024, the mother complained to the Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman (LGO).

On 17 December, the LGO said the mother had identified suitable provision for her child during her operation, and the council agreed to fund 24 nights of respite care throughout the year.

However, at the time, Miss X said the council had still not resolved the issues and was concerned that she would be in the same situation in the future.

The LGO found that there had been a problem with the council's complaints procedures.

"Councils should use the children's statutory complaints procedure for complaints about actions they take to meet their duties under Part 3 of the Children Act 1989," said the LGO.

"The council's failure to respond to Miss X's complaint using the children's statutory complaints procedure was fault."

It added that this meant the mother had to go through the "wrong complaints procedure and complain to the Ombudsman unnecessarily".

The LGO told Shropshire Council to begin an investigation into the complaint and needed to provide evidence of its compliance.

A council spokesperson said: "We acknowledge and understand the concerns made by the individual and have apologised for any distress this has caused.

"We welcome the findings from the Ombudsman; solutions are being sought, and we are taking the necessary steps to ensure our children's statutory complaints processes are applied appropriately in future."