Council and health body rapped over handling of vulnerable young man

A vulnerable young man left to manage his money in two tins has successfully taken action against both a council and health authority through an ombudsman complaint.

He was wrongly charged more than £8,000 for accommodation, left without bathing facilities for six months and put at risk of financial exploitation, because those looking after him failed to monitor his care properly, a joint investigation by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman and the Local Government Ombudsman found.

The ombudsmen said they unearthed a catalogue of errors in the aftercare arrangements for the 31-year-old man, who has schizophrenia and Asperger’s syndrome.

Monitoring of his care after release from a psychiatric unit was so far below standard that it amounted to service failure, they decided.

Carers expected the man to manage his household money by using two tins, which money was paid into or taken out of and the information recorded in ledgers.

But the investigation found that some of that data from the ledgers was missing, meaning the system was open to abuse.

Because carers failed to help him budget effectively, he was able to open two personal bank accounts, incurring an overdraft on one.

In addition, one of his flats where he lived for more than two years had no bathing facilities for six months and there were tensions between him and the landlord who was also his carer.

The care company commissioned to look after him later admitted this practice was unacceptable.     

Plymouth City Council and NHS Plymouth Primary Care Trust (now Northern, Eastern and Western Devon Clinical Commissioning Group), which were both responsible for his care, have been asked by the two ombudsmen to pay him £12,000, split equally between them.

The ombudsmen also called on both organisations to admit their service standards amounted to maladministration and to apologise

The Local Government Ombudsman, Dr Jane Martin, said: “The complaint offered both the trust and the council the opportunity to review the care given to the man and to address the concerns that were raised.

“Neither authority took that opportunity and did not give the complaints the attention they deserved."

She added: “Addressing a complaint locally is often the most effective way of resolving the issues and of ensuring that the lessons learnt help drive service improvements. In this case, the handling of the complaints by the trust and the council simply compounded the frustration that the man experienced.”