Mother awarded £2k after son unable to shower

Mrs X's disabled son was unable to fully access the bathroom as intended

A mother has received a £2,300 compensation payment after delayed works meant her disabled son was unable to shower in their bathroom for a "significant amount of time".

South Staffordshire District Council had agreed to fund adaptions to Mrs X's bathroom, including a shower aid for her son to bathe more easily.

However, a report by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman found that the work was of a poor standard and the shower aid was installed nine months after work started.

The council acknowledged that "the quality of the workmanship was not good enough at the beginning and the delays which took place", the report said.

Funded by a disabled facilities grant, the majority of the work was completed in September 2022 with a local building contractor, while the shower aid was installed in June 2023.

A council letter was sent to Mrs X a few months later which acknowledged that the delays "meant there were times the family had no access to bathing facilities".

Delays had caused the mother and son "avoidable distress, inconvenience and frustration", the report said.

The council paid her the money to remedy the injustice and apologised for Mrs X's experience along with the stress it had caused.

It agreed to attend the property to assess any snags along with making sure a contractor completed the agreed snag list.

The local authority accepted that "on this occasion the experience had been poor and fell short of the standards expected by the council".

"Over the last 12 months considerable improvements have been made to the service around performance and quality," the council added.

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations.