News

Derbyshire Council has agreed to pay £350 to the mother of a man with mild learning difficulties, who was "lost" in the social services system.

An investigation by local government ombudsman Patricia Thomas found that at a difficult time in the life of David Walsh (not his real name), he was "simply lost in the system" because of the informal way his social worker managed his case.

No provision was made for Walsh when his social worker left the council, and there were communication failures and delay in assessing his needs. The council suggested that it was inappropriate that Walsh had been a client of its learning difficulty team, but Thomas felt this did not excuse the council's failures.

The council accepted fault and has agreed to pay £350 to Walsh's mother for his benefit.

"However, I trust that the council will also take steps to improve its procedures and its speed of response to communications," Thomas concluded.