Council guilty of delays but not of deliberately frustrating mum’s attempts to see her children

By Adrian Zorzut, Local Democracy Reporter

Kensington and Chelsea council has blamed ‘workload issues’ for delays to organising for a woman to see her children more often.

The local authority has apologised and paid the woman – known only as Mrs X in a report – £150 for the distress.

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman said the council had unintentionally delayed setting up contact between Miss X and her children.

KC council became involved with the children due to concerns about their wellbeing and placed them in foster care. They were later handed over to their parents, with one going to Miss X and two with her former partner, known only as Mr Y.

Miss X asked for unsupervised contact with her eldest child in a meeting at the end of July 2023 and was told by a social worker they would look into it and discuss it with the children’s guardian and her ex-partner.

At a court hearing in early January 2024, the court decided Miss X should be given more supervised contact with her children and the council obliged by providing times and venues.

By late February, Miss X began the additional visits at a contact centre near her ex’s home address. The council said it was aware Miss X experienced domestic abuse from Mr Y.

The council said to protect Miss X from her former partner, Miss X and Mr Y would visit their children at the contact centre on different days.

Miss X complained in early February 2024 about delays in these meetings and made a stage two complaint against the council in March saying she believed the council had deliberately hindered contact with her children.

A week later, the council apologised and said the delay was not deliberate. They said they only had two contact centres and so it was not always possible to agree to requests about location.

The council said they had considered Miss X’s safety concerns about Mr Y and that the contact with her eldest child had been unsupervised and so the council had no involvement in that arrangement.

Miss X complained to the ombudsman and the council acknowledged the delay in setting up contact for six weeks. They said this was due to a combination of workload issues and difficulties finding a suitable day at the contact centre.

KC council said it worked out an extra day of contact for Miss X with her children to compensate for the delay. The ombudsman said the delays had caused ‘avoidable frustration and distress’ to Miss X.

They added: “This fault was caused by workload issues and I see no evidence of it being deliberate as Miss X suggests.” The watchdog added the council had considered Miss X’s safety with setting up contact with Mr Y present and found no fault around unsupervised contact between the mum and her eldest child.

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