WARRINGTON Borough Council has apologised to two families following a Local Government Ombudsman finding against the authority and local NHS partners.
The council is also to pay £6,000 compensation to each of the families while Warrington Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and Bridgewater Community Healthcare NHS Trust will jointly pay £500 compensation to one of the families.
The two cases relate to maladministration in two cases relating to failings in the delivery of health services with educational provision which occurred in 2010 where the council had final responsibility
Steve Edwards, the council’s assistant director of universal services, said “On this occasion we failed badly, the result was unacceptable and we apologise sincerely.
“We have agreed to pay the proposed compensation in full.
“We will be fully implementing all of the ombudsman’s recommendations and more.”
He added: “We are writing to the families in question to apologise unreservedly, and a senior council official will be ready to meet with them to hear their concerns in person.
“We have already carried out a thorough investigation of what went wrong. As a result of this we have put into place a comprehensive action plan to ensure greater robustness in our procedures in future.
“We have agreed this action plan with our partners, and its implementation will be rigorously monitored.”
Mr Edwards added: “We are also exploring whether any other families are affected by the same or similar issues.
“We have learned important lessons and we’re confident this will never happen again.”
Steve Sutcliffe, interim chief officer for Warrington CCG, added: “We have been working with Warrington Borough Council and Bridgewater Community Healthcare NHS Trust to identify what went wrong in this matter and we now have a collective action plan in place to ensure that our procedures are fully robust.
“We are deeply apologetic to all those that have been affected by this issue and we will be implementing all the recommendations of the ombudsman”.
Council pays out £12,000 compensation and apologises to families after Ombudsman ruling
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Gary Skentelbery
Experienced journalist for more than 40 years. Managing Director of magazine publishing group with three in-house titles and on-line daily newspaper for Warrington. Experienced writer, photographer, PR consultant and media expert having written for local, regional and national newspapers. Specialties: PR, media, social networking, photographer, networking, advertising, sales, media crisis management. Chair of Warrington Healthwatch Director Warrington Chamber of Commerce Patron Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace. Trustee Warrington Disability Partnership. Former Chairman of Warrington Town FC.
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Usual mumbling, “we have learned important lessons” and no disciplinary action. Par for the course in local government.
I note another super duper title, “Assistant Director of Universal Services” I suppose there is a director.
We’ve heard all the variations of the mantra “…learned important lessons and we’re confident this will never happen again.” so many times in Warrington now that no one believes it. Disciplinary actions are skirted around. Accountability for one’s actions whatever the job title and remit, never figures in the equation. Those culpable are allowed to slip off the radar and remain with the Council or packed off to another authority, salary and pension entitlements intact (sometimes enhanced) without a blemish on their CVs.