Dumfries occupational therapy service under fire

A COUNCIL department set up to help some of the most vulnerable members of society has been heavily criticised for failing its charges.

It comes from consultants who had to be drafted in on the back of six complaints which were made about the Occupational Therapy department within the local authority. Their assessment of the department was released to councillors on the social work committee yesterday afternoon.

According to the report by the College of Occupational Therapists, staff are “feeling overwhelmed with the pressures of applying rigid policies that are challenged within their own council” and they didn’t receive “adequate senior management support”.

The report criticises poor communication to service users and urges timescales for work to be improved.

However, individual members of staff were praised for their efforts by service users.

Occupational Therapy is mainly responsible for assessing people who are disabled or with specialist living needs for housing aids and adaptations.

The release of the report, which was carried out almost a year ago, follows a £5,000 compensation payment which the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman ordered the council to award to a disabled Stranraer man who had to wait nearly five years for a housing adaptation after he was assessed.

In that case, the council was found to be assessing the work based on the cost rather than the individual needs.

Details of the other complaints are contained in the consultants’ report.

Council bosses insist, that because of the age of the report, many of the problems have been sorted.