Councils 'failed to support foster carer'

Ms Smith (not her real name) was a foster carer working for Peterborough Council but living in Lincolnshire.

In 2007 a child she had fostered made an allegation about her younger daughter. The same child made a second allegation later in the year about her older daughter, which prompted a further investigation by Lincolnshire Council.

This investigation was discontinued in May 2008, a year after the first allegation had been made, but the outcome was not made clear to Ms Smith, or to Peterborough Council, which had suspended her as a foster carer in the meantime.

When Ms Smith complained to Lincolnshire Council, in December 2008, she was told that Peterborough should have provided her with support.

She then complained to Peterborough, in January 2009, but Lincolnshire Council did not provide information which officers at Peterborough wanted in order to make a comprehensive response to Ms Smith.

As a result of its own investigation, Peterborough Council acknowledged its share of responsibility for the poor way in which the investigations into the allegations had been handled.

The Ombudsman found there were delays in the investigation of the first allegation, and that the two councils did not co-ordinate the provision of appropriate support and information for Ms Smith. As a result, she had to wait until September 2009 for information, which might reasonably have been provided to her as early as July 2007.

The Ombudsman recommended both councils should pay Ms Smith £1,000 to compensate her for the uncertainty and avoidable distress resulting from the case, and a further £250 for her time and trouble in pursuing her complaint – £2,500 in all.

Local Government Ombudsman, Dr Jane Martin, said: "In my view, the most significant failing in this case is that the two councils did not communicate effectively with each other to agree how to work together, to ensure that Ms Smith was properly informed and supported during this intensely difficult period."

She added that the councils' actions could have contributed to the eventual breakdown of the relationship between Ms Smith and her adopted daughters, who both returned to care after the incident.

"Ms Smith’s career, and her family, has disintegrated since May 2007," she said. "There will always be some uncertainty that if matters had been handled correctly, the outcome for Ms Smith and her family might have been different."