Mum paid £500 by council for distress

A COUNCIL which withdrew one-to-one support for a man with learning difficulties has apologised to his mother and paid him £500 for the distress caused.

Gwynedd Council was urged to take the remedial action after being found guilty of maladministration by the Public Services Ombudsman.

It follows a complaint from the mother that the change had had a significant detrimental effect on her son, a young adult with cerebral palsy and mild learning difficulties identified only as ‘Mr X’.

He had been receiving nine hours of one-to-one support each week, but in January 2015 the authority said the service would end, even though the client had not been re-assessed.

He was offered group sessions on alternate Saturday mornings, but the family’s GP expressed concern about the impact on him and called for the one-to-one support to be reinstated.

In response to the Ombudsman, the council accepted there had been shortcomings in the process and that alternative support should have been put in place before the one-toone was stopped.

Investigation officer Steffan Evans said: “Those shortcoming were likely to have caused Mr X significantly more distress than he would otherwise have experienced.”