Council showed 'lack of understanding' of needs of people with autism

The Local Government Ombudsman heavily criticised the authority over how it handled the needs of one Bradford resident with autism – referred to as Mr Y.

And it says there are likely to have been other people with Autism who were failed by the Council.

Mr Y claimed a lack of understanding of the condition led to a social worker assessment painting him as a “narcissistic psychopath” and slammed the authority’s “humiliating and degrading treatment.”

The ombudsman’s report, published today, said the Council’s failures put Mr Y’s “employment, family life and sense of self at risk.”

It also claimed the authority “infringed his human rights.”

Failings included taking four months to complete an assessment of the man’s care and deciding he should be helped by the local mental health team, despite Mr Y not having a mental health disorder.

The Council has been ordered to pay compensation to Mr Y and his carer, Mrs Z, and revisit similar cases over the past two years.

The report says Mr Y has high functioning autism spectrum disorder and anxiety disorders. He needs support to go about his daily life, including working to provide for his family.

In August 2019 Mr Y was visited by a social worker to have his needs assessed.

The report said: “He said it was apparent Social Worker 1 had little experience of working with people with high functioning ASD. Social Worker 1 confirmed they had no training in ASD.

“Mr Y said the assessment was inaccurate and portrayed him as a narcissistic psychopath. In his comments to us he referred to this as ‘humiliating and degrading treatment’. They agreed another independent social worker would complete an assessment.”

Although social workers suggested Mr Y required eight hours of support a week, the Council put four and a half hours formal support in place.

The report says: “Mr Y told us the delay in getting support put increasing stress on himself, Mrs Z, and her family and he was unable to provide financially for them as previously. The stresses this caused put their relationship in jeopardy and his ability to parent was brought into question. He feels his rights to family life, and to independence, were disregarded. He found that the adult’s and children’s social care teams did not work together effectively, he described it to us as “a great divide”. Better communication and collaboration between them would have been helpful in his case.

“He has children with ASD and is determined that they won’t face the difficulties he has faced in getting the support they need.”

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A release from the Ombudsman service said: “The investigation into the complaint found there was confusion about who should support the man. The council wrongly suggested it should be the local mental health team, despite him not having a mental health disorder.

“The investigation found very few managers at the council had received autism awareness training and none had received specialist training. Just 110 out of around 800 frontline staff had received training.

“The man was not offered an advocate when he first contacted the council. When the assessment did eventually take place the social worker’s lack of understanding about autism led to an ineffective assessment, significantly delaying the council meeting his support needs.

“The Ombudsman also found the council did not properly assess the wife’s needs as a carer and provide her with support too, and also failed to deal properly with the man’s complaint.

“In this case the council has agreed to apologise to the couple and pay them a combined £4,000 for the loss of services and avoidable distress caused. It says the Council has also agreed to carry out ongoing autism awareness training for staff.”

It adds: “We are pleased to note the recent progress the Council has made towards achieving compliance with the Autism Act 2009 and the associated guidance.

“However, the failure to meet these expectations for so long has, on the balance of probability, caused many people with autism, significant injustice.

“We are concerned that many people with ASD were turned away without having an adequate needs assessment.

“In response to our recommendation, the Council looked at its records over the past two years. It found two instances of complaints about assessments by people with ASD and an appropriately trained social worker has approached them offering a reassessment. It says it does not believe there is evidence to show many people with ASD were turned away without having an adequate assessment. However, until the Council has acceptable levels of autism trained assessors and contact staff, it cannot be confident that it serves people with ASD adequately, as it is likely some of those affected did not complain.”

Michael King, Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, said: “I am concerned that there has been a significant lack of corporate understanding of the needs of people with autism at all levels in Bradford Council.

“This lack of awareness has led to what happened in this case. Throughout these events, and in part because of the lack of support, the man’s ability to work decreased to such an extent he was unable to do so.

“I am pleased the council has accepted my recommendations and has agreed to make improvements to the services it provides to people with autism in the city.

“It has also pledged to revisit other cases from the past two years, and offer a similar remedy to others who may have also been affected by the issues raised.”

Iain Macbeath, strategic director of health and wellbeing at Bradford Council, said: “We fully accept the Ombudsman’s finding in this case and apologise to Mr Y and Mrs Z for our failure to provide sufficient support. We will also be paying compensation.

“We recognise that, on this particular occasion, we fell short of the standards we set ourselves and we are sorry for this and the distress it caused.

“We have made sure we have addressed all of the recommendations made by the Ombudsman to prevent anyone else experiencing similar issues.”