Hertfordshire County Council ordered to pay compensation after delays in handling mother’s complaint

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The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman upheld a mother’s complaint against Herts County Council, after she endured a six month delay waiting for her grievance to be addressed.

The woman, referred to only as Miss X, launched a “complex” complaint relating to Section 47 enquiries taken against her after her eldest son made accusations against her, only to later retract his statement

In late September 2021 Miss X’s eldest child made allegations against her and the council got involved with the family. Around this time the council told Miss X that all three of her children should undertake a medical examination.

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Miss X said the council did not explain to her that she could have refused the medical examination for her two younger children who did not make allegations against her. She also said the social worker told her that if she cooperated, her case may not be escalated to section 47 enquiries.

Hertfordshire County CouncilHertfordshire County Council
Hertfordshire County Council

Within four days the council decided to begin the Child Protection procedures. Miss X says that this was unnecessary because soon after her child made the allegations, he admitted he lied because he was frustrated with Miss X. Additionally, she believed the council would not escalate the case because she had cooperated with the authority.

The Ombudsman found the council was at fault over delays in handling the woman’s complaint – particularly that a final hearing should have been held by early July 2023, but this did not happen until late January 2024. The council has been told to apologise to Miss X and it has offered her £700 in compensation. The Ombudsman also recommended an additional £150 for each of her three children.

The Ombudsman added: “The council has already made service improvements to address the faults it accepted during the children’s statutory complaints process and we consider them to be satisfactory Because of this, we will not make any service improvements recommendations.”

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A spokesperson for Hertfordshire County Council said: “We would like to apologise to the family involved in this case. We take the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman’s findings very seriously and where they find we have been at fault, we work hard to understand why that has happened, how we can put it right and how we can prevent it happening again.”

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