Social care in city found to 'woefully inadequate' by ombudsman

Oct 9 2009 by Paul Dale, Birmingham Post

Just 39 social workers are struggling to look after 3,219 Birmingham adults with learning disabilities, an independent study has found.

A sample of people receiving city council help found comprehensive care plans existed in fewer than half of the cases and there was no evidence of a joint approach by public agencies to the longer term needs of the person.

The probe, by social care consultants Mobius UK, was ordered after services for young adults with learning disabilities were severely criticised in 2008.

An investigation by the Local Government Ombudsman found a young woman with severe disabilities had been visited by a social worker only once in eight years and her case had never been reviewed.

Although profoundly deaf, when she did see a social worker sign language interpretation was not available.

Help provided by the council was described by the ombudsman as “woefully inadequate”. The Mobius study found “some good progress” had been made by the learning disability service, but huge challenges remained.

The council already allocates £80 million a year to provide services for people with learning disabilities. Almost £50 million of that goes to look after 560 people with highly complex needs.

A growing demand for help means the budget is likely to be overspent this year by £12.4 million. Expenditure on new cases of people with learning disabilities has been capped at £4,000 a week in an attempt to save money.

The Mobius report said: “Our review revealed that whilst good progress has been made to build on effective infrastructure considerable challenges remain. Despite the increase in social worker capacity workers are struggling with high demand and in consequence a backlog of unallocated work.”

The city council did not set up a separate learning disabilities unit until 2003. The first five years of the new structure saw “relentless demand for services, high staff turnover and little or no administrative support”, Mobius found.

The council says it allocates cases to social workers on a priority basis, giving urgent assistance to young adults and those leaving hospital.

Younger Adults Service Director Shelia Rochester said: “While demand for social work services continues to be high, we have set challenging targets to reduce waiting times for assessments and have increased resources in the short term to clear the backlog of people who are awaiting an assessment.”

Councillor Sue Anderson (Lib Dem Sheldon), the cabinet member for adults and communities, said: “We’ve taken on board the findings of these reports. We don’t want to be complacent about service delivery.

“We know there is still work to be done to improve the service across the city, particularly in a very challenging economic climate.”