Mum wins £21K after having to carry her disabled child between rooms in their flat

By Robert Firth, Local Democracy Reporter

A mum has won £21,000 from a council after she was forced to carry her disabled kid between rooms for three years and a half years because staff failed to find them a wheelchair friendly house.

Lambeth council’s delays in rehousing the family meant the child, known only as Y, couldn’t have essential pain-relieving surgery as they had no suitable place to recover, a report from council watchdog the Local Government Ombudsman revealed.

A healthcare professional said that the delays in finding the family a suitable flat meant the child would never be able to stand up again and now needed an entirely different operation.

In a damning assessment of the council’s handling of the case, Ombudsman chief executive Nigel Ellis said there was “no evidence” the council tried to find the mum, known only as Ms X, an alternative suitable house for most of the three years the family lived in the flat.

He said the child and their mother were put at “significant and avoidable risk of harm over a prolonged period” due to the council’s failures.

The Ombudsman report adds: “The family remained in unsuitable accommodation for almost three and a half years. During that time, Ms X had to meet all Y’s daily living needs without any specialist equipment by carrying and lifting Y.”

An occupational therapist first told the council that the family needed moving in April 2019 because the child’s wheelchair couldn’t fit in the property.

But it took until October 2022 for the family to move into a suitable wheelchair adapted flat because of a series of delays and mistakes in how the council handled their case.

Lambeth council failed to reply to the occupational therapist’s first email about the family’s situation in 2019.

In May 2022, the therapist wrote to the council informing them that “the long-term impact of [Y] being unsuitably housed means [they] will have no bones in [their] hips to keep [their] legs in place.”

The report adds: “This will make it more difficult to support [them] with manual handling and positioning. [Y] will also never be able to be supported in standing.”

The email also said Y’s school had been forced to buy them a specialist bed in which they were wheeled around the building in, because sitting in their wheelchair was causing them too much pain. Lambeth council staff never replied to this email.

The Ombudsman called it a “significant injustice”.

Cllr Donna Harris, leader of the council’s Liberal Democrat opposition, said the scale of the neglect identified in the report was “totally unacceptable.”

Lambeth council apologised and said it would carry out an independent review of its homeless service as recommended by the Ombudsman.

A spokesman said: “We accept the findings of the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman and apologise to the family who were badly let down in this case. The council will undertake the Ombudsman’s recommended actions.”

Pictured top: Lambeth council town hall (Picture: Grainne Cuffe)