A DISABLED man suffered a catalogue of incompetence from Bury social services, according to a scathing report from the Local Government Ombudsman.

Files went missing, records weren't kept and investigating officers had conflicts of interest as the grievance dragged on for more than two years.

The man, given an alias of Mr Redfern by ombudsman Mrs Patricia Thomas, has been awarded £600 compensation after the council was found to have failed at every stage to properly investigate his complaints.

The council has also apologised and ordered a shake-up of procedures to make sure the blunder never happens again.

It's the latest official indictment of the department which was slammed last year by inspectors for poor management while running up a £3 million overspend.

Mr Redfern had initially complained about the conduct of a specialist social worker who, without authorisation, had involved herself in court proceedings concerning the custody of his daughter after he and his wife separated. He had also complained about the council's failure to provide equipment to help him with his disability. Mrs Thomas says that the council had failed to investigate the complaints properly at any stage. An officer who initially investigated had a conflict of interest and failed to conduct a complete investigation.

A later investigation, begun after the case had been referred to the Ombudsman, still failed to consider all the evidence which was both inaccurate and incomplete.

Only one of the six social services and legal staff cited in the report still works for the council.

Mr Dennis Taylor, Bury Council chief executive, said: "We are happy that this matter has been settled to the satisfaction of the Ombudsman.

"We have taken steps to ensure that our procedures are tightened up and that problems of this kind do not occur again.

"We have apologised to the complainant and we have taken on board all the comments made by the Ombudsman. It is our intention to offer the best possible service to the public of Bury and we are always ready to learn from any mistakes that we might make."

The Ombudsman's report can be inspected at Bury Town Hall for a three-week period.

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