Ombudsman investigation uncovers more than 500 unread police welfare reports during investigation into London borough

The Ombudsman was initially contacted by a woman who complained that the council did not act quickly enough when she reported concerns about a friend’s living situation.

She said the council had not done enough to help the friend in the year before he had a fall during a seizure, leaving him with a life-changing injury.

The report noted that both she and the emergency services had alerted the council to their concerns about the man’s health and vulnerability, including that he was at risk of being made homeless.

During the Ombudsman’s enquiries into the complaint, the council revealed it had more than 1,100 unread emails in its social work inbox, including 500 police reports.

Julie Odams, Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman Chief Executive, said: “Because of the council’s inertia, the man at the centre of this case was left at risk of significant harm.

“While we cannot say the accident which caused such a major injury would have been prevented if the council had acted sooner, the man’s friends and family are left not knowing whether things might have turned out differently if he’d had the help he needed earlier.

“The council has agreed to put in place an action plan to improve how it responds to safeguarding alerts like these, including training staff on dealing with safeguarding referrals. I hope this shocking case will spur the council into making lasting changes which will benefit other vulnerable people in the borough.”

To remedy the injustice caused, the council was recommended to:

• apologise to the woman and her friend;
• pay the friend £2,000 for leaving him at risk of harm;
• pay the woman £200 to acknowledge the time and trouble spent pursuing the complaint;
• review what has gone wrong, including reviewing its safeguarding policy;
• provide training to staff on accepting safeguarding referrals, and on effective complaint handling;
• refer the Ombudsman’s report and its action plan to the Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and the relevant scrutiny committee and keep both updated on progress.

According to the report, the council has accepted the recommendations.

Cllr Lucia das Neves, Haringey Council Cabinet Member for Health, Social Care and Wellbeing, said: “We recognise the seriousness of the findings and fully accept that mistakes were made, for which we apologise.

“We should have responded more swiftly when concerns were raised about the neighbour’s health and vulnerability.”

She added: “A series of actions have already been undertaken to address the concerns raised about our handling of this case and we have cleared the backlog of unread emails highlighted in the report.  

“We are approaching this with honesty, accountability, and a clear focus on improvement.

“The council is committed to learning from this case, and we are carrying out an independent review of our safeguarding arrangements to ensure that we are delivering the highest standards of care and support to our residents.” 

Lottie Winson