Ombudsman urges council to review policies on complex child neglect cases

The Local Government Ombudsman has called on a council to review its policies for handling complex neglect cases involving children.

The call followed an investigation into Nottingham City Council’s failure to safeguard the welfare of two children over a four-year period.

The complainant in the case claimed that the local authority had failed to properly assess the needs of their two grandchildren.

It was alleged that the children suffered significant neglect as a result of their mother’s (the complainant’s daughter’s) inability to look after them.

The mother had for a long time been diagnosed with severe learning difficulties. In 2005, before her first child was born, Nottingham assessed that she was unable to look after children without substantial support.

The investigation by the LGO, Dr Jane Martin, found that the council:

• failed to carry out adequate or timely assessments of the children’s needs;
• failed to critically assess its own efforts to help the mother to care for them;
• repeatedly attempted to adopt the same strategies to support the mother to parent her children, despite her being often indifferent and sometimes hostile towards its approaches; and
• taken sides in a dispute between the mother and grandmother.

“As a result, the children suffered significant periods of neglect and a lack of stimulation in their early years, and one of the children suffered injuries whilst in their mother’s care,” the LGO said.

The children were taken into care in 2009 and spent 12 months with foster carers outside their family. The council failed to promote contact with the grandmother for the first seven months, even though the children had previously enjoyed regular contact.

The grandmother had wanted to care for the children. However, the LGO revealed that Nottingham sought to resist her application to become a carer by challenging independent assessments of her suitability for ten months. The council also sought to discredit her through unjustified allegations by its officers.

A court eventually granted the grandmother special guardianship of the children in July 2010.

Dr Martin said: “In this case the council failed in its statutory duty to act first and foremost in the interests of the children, by pursuing a strategy for four years of attempting to support their mother to look after them.

“Significant delays in cases involving neglect can have an even more devastating effect on young children because of the impact it has on their development. Timely and effective assessment processes, and clear record keeping by councils would help to alleviate similar issues.”

In addition to recommending that Nottingham review its policies, the LGO called on the council to compensate the children £5,000 each.

She also said it should reimburse the grandmother’s legal expenses and pay her £1,000 for the distress caused pursuing the complaint. 

Cllr David Mellen, Nottingham's Portfolio Holder for Children’s Services, said: “This is a case where we persevered for too long with efforts to help a mother remain as the carer of her children. However, there were periods of improvements in care by the mother which were identified by all the key agencies involved.

“When matters deteriorated, we instigated child protection processes and brought the matter before the scrutiny of the court, with the benefit of an independent children’s guardian. Ultimately, the council recommended to the court that the grandmother should be given guardianship of the children, which was granted."

Cllr Mellen added: "We are committed to maintaining high standards for the care and safeguarding of children and have made huge improvements since 2005 when we first became involved when the first child was born. We acknowledge the Ombudsman's findings and we can reassure people that we have already implemented improvements which address the Ombudsman’s concerns. We regret any upset caused to the family.”