Council to pay £2.3k over wait to adapt disabled boy’s home
DELAYS CAUSED FAMILY ‘SIGNIFICANT DISTRESS’
A WEST London council has been ordered to pay a disabled boy’s family £2,300 after it failed to adapt their home for more than a year.
Hillingdon Council has been ordered to compensate the family of a disabled boy after his father complained that the council took too long to adapt the family home to suit his son’s needs.
A report from the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman said the boy, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, has disabilities that require a lot of care and support. In July 2019, a council officer said the boy’s home should have adapted windows and doors, a wet room and other modifications to help keep him safe at home.
The council initially categorised the adaptations as “minor adaptations”.
According to the report, the council informed the boy’s family in September that year that the adaptations to their home would start shortly, but there were several delays because the council said that the adaptations would cost more than the £1,000 allocated to “minor” tweaks.
The boy’s family complained to Hillingdon in February 2020 about delays to fixing up their home, but when the Covid 19 pandemic began, the works to adapt the boy’s home were once again delayed.
In July 2020, the council said a shortage of materials meant they could not start work on the property.
The work to adapt the boy’s home finally started in October 2020, 15 months after the boy was first assessed and more than a year since the council promised to start work.
The Ombudsman found that the council was at fault on several counts and broke the law for taking too long to approve the planned works and funding for it.
It also condemned the council’s delays, saying that if they had been quicker to start the works, the adaptations would not have been affected by the pandemic. Writing in the report, the Ombudsman said the council’s delays had caused the boy, known as B in the report, “significant distress” and had left his family living in “difficult circumstances”.
The Ombudsman continued: “This is a significant injustice.”
The council has been ordered to pay the boy’s family compensation within four weeks and to apologise to them in writing.