Wandsworth Council has been ordered to pay £1,400 to a mother whose disabled son waited around three and a half years for adaptations to their home. The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman found that works recommended in November 2022 were not completed until this year, with further delays after the council had accepted failings in its handling of the case.
The mother, identified in the report as Mrs X, complained that the south London authority had failed to provide aids and carry out adaptations recommended to support her son, referred to as Y. The council initially apologised and offered £650 in recognition of the distress caused.
However, the ombudsman recommended a total payment of £1,400 after finding that the council took another year to carry out works it had agreed to complete in May 2025. That period included a six-month delay in appointing a suitable occupational therapist.
Recommendations followed by years of waiting
The case began with an assessment completed in November 2022, which recommended adaptations to help Y at home. Those recommendations formed the basis of the mother’s later complaint about the support her son had not received.
Mrs X complained to the council in March 2024, more than a year after the assessment. She said the authority had failed to provide the recommended aids and complete the adaptations intended to support Y.
By the time the council’s complaints panel considered the case in May 2025, around two and a half years had passed since the original assessment. The panel upheld elements of her complaint and identified shortcomings in both the handling of the assessment and communication with the family.
It found that the council had delayed sharing the assessment with Mrs X for three months. It also found that communication had been poor, although it said she had contributed to some of the delay.
That finding did not remove the panel’s acknowledgement of the effect on Y. It accepted that the delays had affected his independence and quality of life, recognising consequences beyond the administrative handling of his mother’s complaint.
Further delay after the council apologised
The council’s apology and initial offer of £650 followed the complaints process. But the case did not end with that response: works the authority agreed to complete in May 2025 remained subject to further delay.
The ombudsman found that the council then took another year to carry out those works. The six-month wait to appoint a suitable occupational therapist was part of that additional period, rather than a delay confined to the earlier stages of the case.
This distinction was central to the increased remedy. The council had already acknowledged problems and agreed to act, yet the family continued to wait for the work to be delivered.
The recommended £1,400 is the total payment, not an additional sum on top of the £650 originally offered. It is £750 more than the council’s initial proposal, reflecting the ombudsman’s finding of further delay after the authority’s own complaints panel had considered the matter.
Impact on independence and daily life
Adaptations are a legal entitlement for disabled children in council housing. Delays in providing them can leave families living for years in homes that do not meet a child’s needs, even after an assessment has identified the support required.
In Y’s case, the council’s own panel accepted that the wait had affected his independence and quality of life. The findings therefore concerned not only how long paperwork or appointments took, but the effect of the outstanding recommendations on the child they were intended to help.
The ombudsman’s investigation also shows why an apology and an offer of money do not settle the practical issue when agreed works are still outstanding. Its recommendation increased the financial remedy after examining what happened following the council’s May 2025 response.
Fresh assessment and completion of works
A new assessment in February 2026 made further recommendations. The council said most of the works were completed by the end of June, following the prolonged wait since the original assessment in November 2022.
The position reported by the council was that most works had been completed, rather than that every recommendation from the fresh assessment had been fulfilled. That qualification remains important when describing the outcome for the family.
The ombudsman’s recommended remedy is now £1,400 in total. The case records a wait of around three and a half years for the original adaptations, including a further year after the council had agreed to complete works and acknowledged the effect of the delays on Y.
