Ombudsman blasts Bury Council neglect

By Sunil Peck

Two disabled children lived in unsuitable accommodation for three years because of failures by Bury Council in Lancashire, a local government ombudsman's report has found.

Mrs M's children require 24 hour care and assistance with feeding, dressing, bathing and going to the toilet.

But for three years, she had to bathe her children with a hose in the garden, by strip-washing them in a downstairs toilet, and by risking injury by moving them upstairs to a small and inadequately-equipped bathroom.

In the report, the ombudsman, Anne Seex (pictured), said that the underlying cause was ineffective management that can fairly be described as ‘institutionalised indifference’ – not only to the boys’ needs and their mother’s plight, but to the council’s duties and responsibilities.

The ombudsman found that the council knew in 1998 that the family would need a home with a ground floor bathroom and bedroom and that, from 2000, this would need to be for two children. At that time, the older child was too heavy to be carried upstairs to the bathroom.

But in 2002 the family was moved to a house which lacked facilities on the ground floor to accommodate the children's needs. The council did not check if it would be feasible to build an extension and also failed to develop a ‘fall back’ plan.

Planning permission for the extension was denied 18 months later.

In the meantime, despite the concerns of a care agency manager and a trainee social worker, the council refused to provide interim adaptations other than a ‘stair climber’ and a hoist in the dining room.

The family were re-housed in a purpose-built home in 2006.

The ombudsman has recommended that the council apologises to Mrs M and her family; make three annual payments of £6 thousand each to Mrs M and her older disabled child; create a fund of £5 thousand for items and activities chosen by the other children in the family in recognition of the effect on them of the situation; review its procedures for dealing with disabled facilities grants and review the leadership capacity in the relevant services.

A spokeswoman from Bury Council said that the ombudsman's recommendations were being considered and that the council's position should be clarified by the end of November.

*The names have been change