Calderdale Council has taken steps to address a formal complaint regarding its adult social care and homelessness services, with the aim of positively impacting vulnerable individuals and their families in the future.
The individual who raised the complaint approached the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman due to the Council’s failure to arrange necessary support for her late brother’s social care and housing requirements. Her brother experienced significant distress while residing in inadequate bed and breakfast accommodation without the appropriate care to meet his needs. Furthermore, she felt insufficiently consulted and updated on matters affecting her brother’s life.
The Council acknowledges its lapse in maintaining adequate communication with the complainant and missing opportunities to support her vulnerable brother due to a lack of coordination between its adult social care and housing services.
The Ombudsman thoroughly reviewed the complaint and provided recommendations to the Council to ensure the provision of effective, coordinated services for homeless individuals in need of support.
A report outlining the Council’s actions in response to the Ombudsman’s recommendations will be discussed during the Council’s Cabinet meeting scheduled for Monday, 11th September 2023.
Cllr Josh Fenton-Glynn, Calderdale Council’s Cabinet Member for Adult Services and Wellbeing, said; “We made mistakes which we sincerely regret. We are deeply sorry for the significant distress and impact caused for both the complainant and her late brother, and we have sent her a formal apology.
“We are already taking proactive steps to make sure these mistakes don’t happen again and to implement the Ombudsman’s recommendations.
“We take our adult social care and housing support responsibilities very seriously and will use the lessons learned in this case to improve the way we protect vulnerable people in future.
“We accept that the service we provided, in this case, didn’t meet our high standards and that our communication with the complainant, and between our housing and adult social care services, should have been better.
“We have delivered some new training, and more is planned, to ensure staff in each service area work together effectively to meet people’s social care and housing needs. We have done a full audit of the case to learn from it and to inform further training for staff, and we have implemented new internal procedures and guidance.”
Calderdale Council’s Cabinet meeting is on Monday 11 September at Halifax Town Hall from 3pm. The meeting can also be viewed online at https://calderdale.public-i.tv/core/portal/home
