Wandsworth Council took more than seven months to complete a care assessment for a young woman, a watchdog has found. By the time the council finally acted, she told it she no longer wanted their help.
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman upheld a complaint (25-008-645) brought by the woman’s mother, who has been caring for her adult daughter largely alone. It found fault with the council on two counts: the delay in assessing the daughter’s needs, and a separate delay in completing the mother’s own carer’s assessment.
But it concluded that neither failure had caused harm serious enough to warrant a financial payment. The council’s apologies, and a new social worker assigned to the case, were deemed sufficient. It is just the latest in a long series of cases that the council has been rebuked by independent judges over.
What happened
The council began a care and support assessment for the daughter in January 2025. Three months passed before it arranged an initial meeting to discuss a plan. When that meeting came, in April, the council proposed five hours of support per week, and the plan assumed the mother would continue doing most of the care herself. There were no direct payments, no provision for breaks from caring, and no timescale.
The mother complained. The council apologised, blamed staff absence, and described five hours as “a starting point.” It then asked her to provide detailed information about what was needed. She provided it: 3-5 times the number of hours she had been offered, plus the ability to take a break from caring and emergency cover. It didn’t come. By June the council had apologised again and allocated a new social worker.
By August, when the council submitted information to the Ombudsman, it accepted the delay had been unreasonable. In those same submissions it told the Ombudsman that the daughter had by that point said she did not want the council to arrange services for her.
In September, the council completed the mother’s own carer’s assessment (nine months after the process had begun) and gave her the details of a local carers’ centre. The regular breaks from caring she had been asking for – where someone else would step in to look after her daughter – were not arranged.
The finding and what it doesn’t resolve
The Ombudsman’s found the council at fault but noted it cannot make someone accept help if they have said they don’t want it. The council accepted the daughter had needs it should meet under the law. No financial payment was ordered.
What the Ombudsman cannot determine, and neither can we, is why. Whether the daughter’s choice is simply what she wants, or whether it reflects the accumulated weight of watching her mother fight a bureaucracy for the better part of a year, complaining twice, waiting for meetings that were months late, and getting nowhere. The finding closes the case. It does not close that question.
The mother is still in the same position she was in when she started. She is still caring for her daughter. She has been given the details of a local carers’ centre. Respite remains unavailable without her daughter’s agreement.
The pattern
Earlier this year, the Ombudsman issued three rulings against the council in eight days. In November, we reported on a family who received a £40,000 social care bill with no prior warning, another case where the council’s own processes failed someone who depended on them.
The Care Act 2014 requires councils to assess any adult who appears to need care and support. The requirement applies regardless of whether the council ultimately decides to pay for any support. Wandsworth’s delay in completing both assessments was found to breach that duty.
If you are a carer trying to get help
Under the Care Act 2014, the council must carry out a care assessment for any adult who appears to need support. You do not need to prove eligibility first. If the council is not responding, you can raise a formal complaint through the council’s own complaints process, and if that does not resolve it, you can escalate to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman. The service is free and independent.
