Renfrewshire Social Workers Apologise Over Care Standards

SOCIAL work chiefs have been forced to apologise after a mix-up over a disabled woman’s records led to a drop in her standard of care.

The victim complained to Scotland’s Local Government Ombudsman after Renfrewshire Council took more than a month to send vital records to another local authority when she moved home.

As a result, the number of care hours she received from the social work department went down from 20 to just three hours a week.

She also lost the 27 hours of Independent Living Fund allowance she was entitled to because of the delay in sending the information.

The woman, who has not been named but is referred to in the Ombudsman’s report as ‘Ms C’, has a form of dystonia – a neurological condition that causes muscle spasms.

She needed help at home to carry out day-to-day tasks, as well as assistance with her personal care.

The woman’s ordeal began when she moved to North Lanarkshire in October 2006.

She complained to Renfrewshire Council the following month about the delay in the transfer of her records.

Unhappy with their response, she then reported the case to the Ombudsman in July last year.

A report into the matter by the Ombudsman states: ‘Ms C attributed many of the issues that she experienced to Renfrewshire Council’s failure to arrange a formal case transfer meeting with North Lanarkshire Council, which meant it did not have full details of her care history when making decisions about her ongoing care.

‘Ms C noted that her social work case file was not handed over to North Lanarkshire Council until their staff visited Renfrewshire Council on November 21, 2006, and picked it up.’

The transfer of documents between the two councils happened a full 32 days after Ms C moved.

The Ombudsman acknowledged Renfrewshire Council’s reasons for the delay – they were waiting to confirm Ms C was moving – but didn’t find them acceptable.

His report concludes: ‘Whilst I cannot confirm the direct impact that the delay had, I do consider the problems that Ms C encountered to be avoidable and that Renfrewshire Council unnecessarily put themselves in a position that required them to make last minute, ad hoc arrangements.

‘As such, I uphold this complaint.’

The Ombudsman has ruled that Renfrewshire Council failed to carry out the complainant’s social work case transfer in accordance with their own procedures and in a timely manner.

However, social work chiefs are annoyed that Ms C had not fully gone through the council’s complaints procedure which, they claim, could have resulted in the matter being resolved at an earlier stage.

Councillor Carol Puthucheary, convener of Renfrewshire’s scrutiny and petitions board, said: “We are clearly disappointed by the report from the Local Government Ombudsman.

“Normally, the Ombudsman does not get involved until a council’s own complaints procedure has been exhausted and this wasn’t the case here.

“North Lanarkshire Council also confirmed that they had received all the information needed to take over providing care for the person who complained.

“There are no clear, national guidelines for how one council should take over the care of a client from another council. The Scottish Government is currently looking into how this should be done.

“We are an organisation that aims to continuously improve our performance and we will abide by the Ombudsman’s ruling. We have revised our procedures and we will apologise to the person who has complained.”