A watchdog has slammed Islington Council for causing “perpetual stress” to a family after refusing to offer proper social care support to a resident with Parkinson’s disease.
By Josef Steen, Local Democracy Reporter
A watchdog has slammed Islington Council for causing “perpetual stress” to a family after refusing to offer proper social care support to a resident with Parkinson’s disease.
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) criticised the council, the North Central London Integrated Care Board (ICB) and the local NHS trust for failing to complete an after care assessment for a woman, known as Mrs X, after she was sectioned in 2021.
The watchdog rebuked the council for dragging its heels in offering full financial support to the woman, which left her daughter and her partner mired in uncertainty. The couple, Ms and and Mr B, had given up their jobs to care for Mrs X full-time but were forced to do so without a care package.
Mrs X was sectioned in early 2021 amid a psychotic episode and later moved into a care home after she was discharged. In 2023, Mrs X told her psychiatrist she wanted to leave the care home system and move out of the borough to live with her daughter and her partner.
The council had previously commissioned care services for Mrs X in December, acknowledging that her Parkinson’s diagnosis left her unable to carry out day-to-day tasks.
Islington’s records also recognised the impact the neurodegenerative disorder was having on Mrs X, such as severe mood swings, tremors and rigidity, and the ensuing stress and anguish. But after the move, Islington and the new local council became locked in a dispute over who was responsible for providing most of her help.
‘The uncertainty alone was an injustice’
Under Section 117 of the Mental Health Act 1983, local authorities and the NHS have a legal duty to provide free specialist aftercare for people after they have been sectioned. After the move, another council assessed Mrs X and judged that if her Parkinson’s symptoms worsened this could impact her mental health and lead to her being sectioned again.
This would mean that it was for Islington, the North Central London ICB and the North London NHS Foundation Trust to arrange care support. However, Islington Council rejected this assessment but at first did not give an explanation why. Meanwhile, Mrs X’s family were left without a care package.
Islington later claimed that it only needed to provide 10% of the funding towards her care under the Mental Health Act, because her needs were “predominantly” related to her Parkinson’s, which fell under the Care Act 2014.
But the watchdog said the council’s “delayed and flawed” assessment ignored the interplay between Parkinson’s and her mental state, despite Islington Council having earlier acknowledged this link in 2020, before she was sectioned.
The Ombudsman’s investigation found that Islington Council, the ICB and the Trust were all at fault for failing to assess her aftercare needs once she was discharged in 2021.
The watchdog ordered the council and the ICB to create a “comprehensive” aftercare plan, and criticised them for failing to agree a care plan already. The Ombudsman singled out Islington Council in particular for being unclear, which confused the couple and likely prolonged the funding dispute.
Though the LGSCO was not in a position to say what care and support would have been commissioned, the investigator said: “[The] uncertainty alone, along with associated stress and frustration, represent injustice in their own right.”
The watchdog also instructed Islington Council, the Trust and the ICB to write to the family and accept the blame, collectively pay Ms A and Mr B £750 each, and explain why they failed to complete an after care assessment despite having several opportunities, such as when Mrs X was first discharged in 2021, after she left residential care.
The NCL ICB officially merged with North West London ICB on April 1, 2026.
A spokesperson for the ICB said: “We’re sorry for the failing in aftercare experienced by Mrs X , as concluded in the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman complaint outcome decision. We have already confirmed with the Ombudsman that we agree with the remedy actions detailed and are in the process of actioning them.”
An Islington Council spokesperson said: “We accept the Ombudsman’s findings and apologise for the failings identified in this case and the distress and frustration they caused to the person involved and their family. We will fully implement all of the recommendations made, working with our NHS partners to ensure the agreed actions are delivered.”
The North London NHS Foundation Trust was approached for comment.
