Compensation order over boy left with violent man

A council has been ordered to pay compensation for “serious” failings over a 14-year-old boy left to live with his mother and her mentally ill violent partner.

The Local Government Ombudsman found Hull Council guilty of maladministration and said the series of failings could have had “very serious” consequences.

Concerns over the wellbeing of the boy and his 11-year-old sister were raised by their aunt and social workers from a neighbouring authority.

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Although an assessment by Hull Council social workers reported the partner’s “severe and enduring mental difficulties” was a concern it concluded the children remain with the mother, with support, although none was provided.

The niece stayed with her aunt, but the boy remained at home.

When further concerns were raised, a trainee social worker did not visit the mother and partner as promised and “took no other appropriate action”. The Ombudsman Anne Seex described this as “maladministration that could have had extremely serious consequences”.

She later denied having met the aunt and a social worker from the other council – although they had “consistent credible” accounts of the meeting.

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Six months after the alarm was first raised the boy was threatened with a knife by his mother’s partner. Although the neighbouring authority made another referral there was no response from Hull Council.

He then moved in with his aunt and she made a formal complaint. The Ombudsman said at all three stages of the complaints procedure the council had failed to respond to the aunt’s main concern – the failure to react to child protection issues.

When the council failed to adequately respond to the Ombudsman, it investigated and found the council had not made an adequate assessment, that there had been delays and they had failed to respond to concerns including when the nephew was threatened. The aunt had been caused “considerable distress and the feeling that she had no alternative but to take them in.”

The council is having to carry out a review, despite the passage of time since the case, which began in 2007, to establish whether another case like it could happen today. It also has to apologise to the aunt and pay her £7,665 – 25 per cent of what she would have been given in allowances for having the children live with her.

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The council has also been told to appoint “competent” people to investigate complaints.

Hull Council’s head of localities and safeguarding, Jon Plant, said: “Since the original involvement in this case in 2007 there is clearer guidance around the process for placement of children within extended family, particularly where families cross-boundaries with more than one local authority.

“In addition, systems for record keeping and complaints procedures have already been updated, and we will continue to review them regularly.”