Father of disabled Tottenham teen slams council over delay to home adaptations

Brian Leveson says lifting 18-year-old Zack in and out of the bath is “physically exhausting”, reports Simon Allin, Local Democracy Reporter

The father of a disabled young man says he has been left physically and emotionally exhausted by repeated delays in fitting housing adaptations to help him care for his son.

Brian Leveson, who lives in Lawrence Road, Tottenham, has been waiting for hoists to help lift his son Zack in and out of the bath since 2015, but he says the family are still being frustrated by delays caused by Haringey Council.

Zack, now aged 18, is quadriplegic and non-verbal, and has needed round-the-clock care since he was born. He has cerebral palsy and epilepsy.

Despite a ruling by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman against the council telling it to pay £2,000 in compensation for delays in December 2021, Brian says works to fit the bathroom hoists and other adaptations are still being held up.

He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “It is physically exhausting. We are lifting an 18-year-old man, as he is now, in and out of the bath.

“The constant follow-ups and chasing is not our responsibility. They [the council] should be maintaining records and having systems in place […] it is emotionally exhausting and, physically, it is not a safe practice.”

Explaining the reasons for the latest delays, Brian said the council had outsourced the occupational therapist role to a private company.

In April this year, the family was visited by a therapist who spent “a long time” with them finding out what work needed to be done to their home. As well as having the hoists fitted, the family said they needed replacement mesh cot sides for Zack’s bed for safety reasons, with a suggested date of August.

Following this, there was a meeting with the housing association and the occupational therapist to discuss how it would work with the council to make the adaptations. “They had a long meeting, and a set of actions was set out,” Brian said.

But then the occupational therapy contract finished, and the family “did not hear anything from the council”. When the family followed up with the council, Brian said it eventually replied on 24th August saying it wanted to discuss their concerns and “try to formulate a plan to progress your bathroom adaptations”.

Brian said: “We are going, ‘hang on, we have had a plan, we have had a meeting, there was a set of actions already agreed. Why are you trying to start the process again?’

“We are going round in very wide circles. It is all taking so long, taking hours of our time repeating things that were already agreed, and which someone very competent laid out in detail.”

Having heard nothing from the council, the family ordered the mesh cot sides and fitted them in August. They have not heard whether the council will reimburse them for the adaptation.

Brian said: “The council make these promises where they go, ‘lessons will be learned’. I don’t know when they are going to learn these lessons, but something needs to change.”

A spokesperson for the council said it had been “working hard with the family to arrange and co-ordinate the adaptations for the young adult for a number of years”.

They added that the family “requested that the adaptations were put on hold during discussions with the housing association, and we have since written to them to request what their wishes are moving forward”.

However, the family claims this statement relates to a communication from before the agreements were put in place in April. They say the recent delays are the fault of the council and the poor handover of the case from one occupational therapist to another.

The council spokesperson added: “Unfortunately, changes in personnel in social care do happen, and we work tirelessly to ensure recruitment and retention is a priority.

“A senior manager is in contact with the family, and we are working together to get this issue resolved.”

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