Ombudsman criticises council over removal of baby

The watchdog was highly critical of the actions of social workers at North East Lincolnshire Council who decided that the woman’s baby daughter should live with the father without telling the mother.

The council was found to have been “one-sided” in favour of the father in the case, which started three years ago.

Social workers were also found to have failed to properly communicate their decisions to the mother, who believed her baby would only be removed for a short period of time.  

The LGO said these failures caused “significant distress” to the mother, who was living with the baby’s grandmother along with her two other children while she sought support for her postnatal depression.

In one incident social workers removed the baby from the mother after she had taken her back to the grandmother’s house following a doctor’s appointment.

The mother was also warned by social workers that her other two children would be taken into care if she did not co-operate.

The mother had to wait a further nine months before she was told the baby would be able to live with her at least part-time.

Local Government Ombudsman Dr Jane Martin said: “The actions of North East Lincolnshire Council’s children’s services department were disproportionate, arbitrary and misleading and led to months of uncertainty and the mother to feel aggrieved because the council’s support for the father having custody was one-sided.

“Any decision to remove a child from their family is difficult and likely to cause significant distress to all involved.

“This is why it is all the more important that parents can see they were treated fairly, the process was followed properly, and the outcome was in proportion to the events that necessitated it.”

She added: “In this case social workers fell so far short of what is acceptable.”

The council has been asked to apologise to the family, ensure no similar failings happen again as well as review its social work policies and ensure social workers involved receive appropriate training.

It has also been asked to pay the mother £6,000 to “reflect the severe avoidable distress, anxiety, justifiable outrage and loss of opportunity she suffered”.

In addition the council has been asked to pay the baby’s grandmother £1,000 due to the distress she suffered.

Joanne Hewson, the council’s deputy chief executive, apologised for the distress caused to the family.

She said: “We had the child’s best interests at heart in dealing with the matter and believed at the time that balanced steps were being taken to resolve the situation by placing the child into her father’s care.

“However, while we have some misgivings about the interpretation of some of the facts contained in the report, we acknowledge that in this case our practice did not meet the high standards we expect and therefore we accept the Ombudsman’s findings.”