A Somerset couple has been paid £1,000 in compensation after their local council failed to assess their disabled children for 14 months.

The couple, known only as Mr and Mrs X, asked Somerset County Council (now Somerset Council) to carry out a carers' assessment in May 2021, in order to establish whether they were eligible for support in caring for their children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

The council took until early-August 2022 to complete this assessment and did not put the agreed support in place until November 2022 – meaning the parents missed out on more than a year of support, including respite care.

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) has ordered the council to formally apologise and pay the family £1,000 to reflect the "distress, frustration, loss of respite and time and trouble caused to them".

The ombudsman exists to investigate allegations of "maladministration" and "service failure" in the public sector – in other words, instances in which it is claimed councils have not fully carried out their legal duties to taxpayers.

Under the Children Act 1989, a vulnerable child's needs must be assessed "holistically" – meaning it must take account of the needs of the child's other family members and provide support where needed to parent carers.

Mr and Mrs X asked the council for a carer's assessment as they were "struggling to cope" with raising their children and "needed some additional help to manage".

The county council agreed to carry out an assessment in May 2021, referring the matter to a family worker with a view to the process being completed by the end of June.

However, the family worker did not start the assessment until June 18, 2021 – and when they visited the family, once in July and once in August, one of the children "would not engage" in the assessment process.

Mrs X emailed the council in September 2021, stating she was "struggling to cope" – with the council providing her with a number to contact for mental health support, and officers noting Mrs X "declined an offer of counselling."

Mr and Mrs X chased the council up in November 2021 and again in late-January 2022. with the council responding that it could not complete the assessment until it had spoken in detail to each child.

The couple formally complained to the council in February 2022, saying they remained "without appropriate support and respite".

The council responded that the family worker had "struggled to move the assessment forward" since they had not been able to arrange a visit with the family – but officers accepted there had been a delay and would allocate a new family worker to the couple.

Mr and Mrs X escalated their complaint, with the council responding in June 2022 after the initial family worker had left its employment – with the council saying it had "no records" to establish what had happened to date.

The council finally completed the assessment in June 2022, concluding Mr and Mrs x were entitled to four hours' support per month during term time and eight hours per month during the school holidays.

The council approved the support package in August 2022, with Mr and Mrs X receiving support by way of direct payments once they had "identified an appropriate respite support worker".

The couple were referred to a registered charity from which the council commissioned such support – but their referral was overlooked until they chased things up with the council in early-October 2022, and a suitable worker was not found until the end of November 2022.

While there is no statutory time-scale in which a carer's assessment must be completed, government guidance for local authorities states that such work should be carried out within four to six weeks from the point of first contact.

The ombudsman concluded that there were "large gaps of inactivity" on the part of the council and "no evidence" that the original family worker assigned to Mr and Mrs X had considered a full range of support services which could be offered to the family.

The investigation found there had been "a lack of appropriate oversight" throughout the process, with a focus on "obtaining a child's view" at the expense of supporting the parents.

The ombudsman also stated that the charity was "at fault" for overlooking the referral once the support had been agreed.

The report concluded: "Had the council completed the carer's assessment by the end of June 2021 it is likely, on balance, that Mr and Mrs X would have had support in place by the end of September 2021 at the latest.

"This means the delay caused Mr and Mrs X distress, frustration and the lost opportunity for respite for 14 months and time and trouble chasing the council about the matter."

The ombudsman has ordered the council to apologise to Mr and Mrs X and to pay them £1,000 in compensation.

It also ordered the council to ensure its managers have "sufficient oversight of allocated assessments" and "fully consider the needs of the parent carer" in these kinds of cases.

A spokesman for Somerset Council said: "We have accepted the findings and apologised to the families for any distress caused to them. We have also completed all the activities requested of us in the agreed time-scales.

"Our most recent feedback from Ofsted recognises the improvements we have made across children's services but we know there is more to do and are committed to learning from all complaints."

This ruling comes as an independent report was published looking into how UK councils can improve decision-making for SEND children and young people.

The report ,commissioned by the Administrative Justice Council, has researched practical solutions to address how 96 per cent of family appeals to the SEND Tribunal are upheld, amid a 200 per cent increase in appeals over the last decade.

The LGSCO contributed to this report, indicating that 90 per cent of SEND complaints it handled had been upheld.

Ombudsman Paul Najsarek said: "Local authorities have an opportunity to improve the outcomes for families of people with SEND, by investing properly in good complaint handling. But our experience shows many councils are missing this invaluable free feedback.

"Effective complaint handling can help resolve issues earlier in the process and avoid protracted disagreements, and unfortunately this is something we regularly see in the investigations we uphold.

"I welcome the report's recommendations, which also suggest an increased focus on ensuring strong democratic oversight of complaints data, and a bigger role for council monitoring officers in overseeing how their authorities learn lessons from complaints."