‘My autistic son was let down by social services and so have I been after suffering a brain haemorrhage

Martin Shipton

A mother who has been highly critical of her local social services department over what she claims is its negligent treatment of her autistic son now says she has failed to get the home care she needs after suffering a brain haemorrhage two days before Christmas.

In 2024 Nation.Cymru reported how the mother and her husband had accused Flintshire County Council of a string of failures relating to their then 15 year-old son, who has complex needs and exhibits challenging behaviour. We did not name the family to protect the teenager from victimisation.

The parents’ list of alleged social services failures included:

* Allocating their son to a generic “child in need” team rather than a specialist team that took account of his registered disability with complex needs and challenging behaviour. There is no expert provision for autistic disabled children who are autistic in Flintshire.

* There was no assessment or support plan put in place for their son in January 2020, when he was assessed as having eligible needs, in contravention of the Social Services and Wellbeing (Wales) Act 2014.

* A senior practitioner was very rude and unhelpful and refused to advocate for the boy, claiming that it was the responsibility of the parents to contact support agencies. The boy’s mother, herself a qualified child care social worker of 30 years standing, maintains it is the role of the social worker to work with other agencies and advocate for services when they are needed.

* When an assessment was carried out, it was of a poor standard, with no references, names, dates, professional input, bad grammar, no research references to autism behaviour and incorrect information. No advice of a multi-agency support plan to follow was given. A support plan should have been put into place immediately after an assessment with all relevant agencies involved. But there was no multi agency support plan, just one based on local authority recommendations. This was inadequate because “social workers have no understanding of autism to understand recommended needs”.

* Despite having flagged their son’s challenging behaviour, no “safe care risk plan” was put in place, despite it being a legal requirement.. Doing so would have entailed a multi agency meeting with a care risk plan in place looking at how to minimise risk.

* When the boy expressed great concern about the bullying of a teaching assistant and pupils, a social worker was advised by his senior manager not to speak to him about his worries. He was not listened to and this resulted in his anxieties increasing.

* No health professional expert was made available to advise on the creative use of equipment for autistic people. Equipment that had been approved was suddenly rejected after the parents complained. This included books on managing autism behaviour for the boy to write in, a hammock to decompress in the garden, and Lego for fine motor skills and focus, as advised by a senior occupational therapist. No health professional was involved in decision making on this issue. The head of children’s services reported that the senior occupational therapist’s assessment and recommendation was irrelevant to their son’s care plan.

* Huge delays in implementing a care plan, leading to the boy’s behaviour getting much worse, with six police referrals made by the parents due to his extreme violent behaviour. After she complained, the mother was repeatedly told that the council would not provide support until the complaint investigation was completed. This included a threat to illegally remove their son’s support services. The parents said: “No investigation should result in support being put on hold for a child who was in a crisis.”

* The parents say they were made to feel like criminals after the father accidentally caused a bruise to the son due to restraining him following a violent breakdown. No safeguarding lead was designated following this incident.

* A senior manager stated incorrectly that it was not the role of the social worker to contact health agencies and that the mother had to do this.

* There was no response from the social work team when the boy had very serious meltdowns, resulting in police referrals made to the council. One resulted in him having a meltdown for 45 minutes and complaining about his breathing. The parents said this should have been responded to by the duty team immediately in a 24-hour social work allocation and followed up with a visit.

Safeguarding

The mother told us at the time: “Safeguarding practice in the council is very unsafe and needs addressing as my son has been left at risk with no interventions. This raises concerns about the protection of vulnerable children.

“We have had the most harrowing time over the past four years and feel the council has failed our son. We do hope no other family has to experience such a hostile and oppressive response from the council regarding a request to support our son.”

The couple raised their concerns with Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW), which strongly advised them to pursue the matter with the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales (PSOW). CIW echoed the parents’ concerns in a report dated February 2024.

The Ombudsman, however, decided not to launch an investigation into the issues raised. Instead, a “Stage 2” investigation was carried out into the couple’s complaints by someone with, according to the mother, no professional qualification to understand social work practice.

A spokesperson for PSOW said at the time: “While we are sorry that the complainants are unhappy with the outcome of their complaint, we should make clear that their complaint was fully assessed in accordance with our procedures.”

‘Lucky to be alive’

Following her brain haemorrhage last month, the mother has recently been discharged from hospital.

She told us: “I have been informed that it is the most severe type of haemorrhage and that I’m lucky to be alive.

“But after coming home I was informed that it would be weeks before the hospital social worker team could assess me. I have had no support from Adult Social Care. I have requested help and not received any. I currently need 1-to-1 care.

“My son also needs 1 to 1 support. He ran away the other night and I didn’t even have a phone call to see how he is.”

Craig Macleod, Flintshire County Council’s Chief Officer for Social Services, said: “Adult Social Services are working with health colleagues to assess and support [the mother] with her current needs.

“With regards the historic issues raised in relation to Children’s Services, [the mother] has been provided with a response and advised to contact the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales if she wishes to progress the matter further.”