Devon Council pays out thousands after caning criticism from Ombudsman
The Ombudsman investigating top level complaints against Devon County Council has caned the authority for its late responses and failing to act and ordered thousands of pounds in compensation to be paid.
In one case, the Ombudsman even had to threaten to issue a 'witness summons' to secure a response from County Hall after the council stalled for five months on supplying information.
Since April this year, the Ombudsman, an independent Government body which investigates serious complaints against councils, has found against the county council in 26 cases and ordered compensation payments running into thousands of pounds are paid to residents.
The majority of the complaints upheld against Devon County Council relate to failures in children's services and specifically children with special educations needs.
The Conservative run council has been failing to manage Children's Services for the past 13 years with another Government inspector, Ofsted, ordering improvements and changes to ensure children in Devon are kept safe.
And it's not just this year the Ombudsman has criticised the county council. In his letter to the chief executive of Devon County Council, the Ombudsman said:"In more than a fifth of cases, the council was late providing evidence of compliance with recommendations it had agreed to. Disappointingly, the same concern was raised in last year's letter.
"In one case, the recommended review of adult safeguarding procedures took over seven months longer to complete that originally agreed."
Uncovering the stinging criticisms and failures, Cllr Alan Connett, the Liberal Democrat county councillor for Exminster & Haldon, said: "I question whether the council is taking the Ombudsman reports and letters seriously. It seems to me they have been swept under the carpet at County Hall.
"The Conservatives running the council are understandably embarrassed by their complete failure to make improvements and then to even undertake the actions the council promised the Ombudsman would take place.
"This is yet another shameful example of the complete chaos at County Hall. It is a further reason why, in my view, the Government should step in and take over running Children's Services. Clearly, the council is lost in the wilderness and continues to fail, continues to let down vulnerable children and is cheating children with special needs of the support they need."
Eight years ago, the council promised to share Ombudsman decisions with councillors and the authority's Standards Committee so findings of failure could be scrutinised locally and improvements ensured.
However, says Cllr Connett, that decision appears not to have been put into action and critical reports from the Ombudsman have not been shared with councillors.
Cases such as 'Miss Y' who the Ombudsman ordered the county council to pay £5,260 after it had 'let down' their child.
In another case, 'Miss X' received £2,550 due to extensive delays which caused 'distress and uncertainty over a five month period'
Another complaint was upheld by the Ombudsman who ordered a payment of £4,950 in that case and further payments of £1,700 and £2,550 in two other separate cases.
A number of the complaints relate to the snail's pace the council takes in sorting out Educational Health and Care Plans for children with special needs. By law, these should all be done and dusted in 20 weeks, the Devon County Council is taking about a year to complete many of these plans.
The Ombudsman said in one case:"We expect councils to follow statutory timescales set out in law and the Code. We are likely to find fault where there are significant breaches of those timescales."
Devon County Council said last month (November 6th) in a news release that "Since August 2023, no child in Devon has been waiting more than a year for their EHC plan to be issued. The national average for meeting the 20-week timeliness target is around 50 per cent, but we are below this."