Somerset County Council pays family £8,250 after respite failure

Somerset County Council's cabinet agreed to apologise to the family at a meeting on Wednesday

A council has paid a disabled man and his family £8,250 after failing to provide appropriate respite care.

But Somerset County Council has refused to accept one of four recommendations made by the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) regarding the case.

The failure, between 2015 and 2018 when the man was a boy, caused his family "significant distress", it said.

The LGO found no fault with the council's special educational needs provision.

The boy suffered from physical and learning disabilities, leading to "excessive appetite and unpredictable violent outbursts".

His three younger siblings were "physically scared" of him and his weight increased from 4.4 stone (28kg) in 2013 to 16.7 stone (106kg) in May 2018.

Somerset County Council concluded in September 2015 that the family needed respite care overnight once a week and for one weekend a month.

Disagreement over police

The LGO found that although the council provided some respite care, it was never as much as it said the family needed.

For that error, it has paid the man's mother £2,000, each of his siblings £2,000 and the man £250.

The LGO said the authority should remind social workers that they should consider involving police if children are being put at "significant risk" by their siblings in some circumstances.

But Somerset County Council said that it would have been "entirely inappropriate" in this case and others like it.

Its cabinet agreed not to implement that recommendation at a meeting on Wednesday.

The authority has been asked to pay the compensation within a month of the report being published on 9 November.