A vulnerable woman in Somerset was made to wait nearly two years to be assessed for the care she needed.

The woman – whose name has not been released – lives in supported accommodation and employs her parents to provide care through direct payments.

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has criticised Somerset County Council for taking too long to properly reassess her care needs, as well as failing to provide answers about respite care and short breaks.

The council has apologised to both the woman and her family, and has said it is taking action to resolve outstanding issues.

The ombudsman's investigation found the council took a total of 21 months to carry out a reassessment of the woman's needs.

It had also "failed to address questions" about who would pay for respite care, and "reneged" on an agreement that it would make a one-off payment for a short break.

The council also failed to backdate the woman's increased care package, and failed to increase her payments to allow her father to be paid for managing her finances.

Ombudsman Michael King said: "The council has relied on the goodwill of this woman's parents to provide support and care over and above what they should have done, because it took too long to complete its reassessment.

"It also didn't do some of the things it had promised to do, or properly consider if the woman needed help to administer her direct payments.

"I now call on the council to reflect on and agree to all of our recommendations. These include actions not just to properly address all of the issues the family encountered, but also practical changes to processes designed to avoid other people suffering similar problems."

The ombudsman said the council had agreed to backdate the increased direct payments back to July 2018 – but was awaiting confirmation about the payments to her father to manage her finances, or the one-off short break.

Somerset County Council has agreed to apologise to the family and will pay compensation to "acknowledge the time and trouble caused" by both the delayed assessment and the complaint process.

A spokeswoman said: "We work hard to get things right every time.

"In this case we did not met the standards we set for ourselves. We have apologised to the individual and their family.

"We have considered all the recommendations and are in the process of actioning them.

"We are a learning authority, and in light of the recommendations we are undertaking a review of our direct payments."