A West Yorkshire council has admitted “mistakes” and issued an apology after a man living with dementia was left unsupported in a hotel.

Calderdale Council issued the apology following a decision by the Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman.

The man, who had a rapidly progressing form of dementia was placed in temporary hotel accommodation by the council when he became homeless in October 2021.

A lack of joined-up thinking between the council’s housing and adult social care departments meant he was left stranded in the hotel until he was eventually sectioned under the Mental Health Act, and later sadly passed away in hospital.

Paul Najsarek, Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, said: “In this case Calderdale council showed a clear lack of initiative when trying to help this man – the housing service decided it could not act until a social care assessment had taken place, while the social care department said it could not act until the man was in appropriate housing.

“This meant the man was left in unsuitable accommodation for far too long, with no social support and officers relying on the goodwill of untrained hotel staff to keep tabs on him.

“To its credit, the council has readily accepted our report’s findings and has agreed a host of measures to ensure this situation cannot happen again.”

Calderdale Council agreed to apologise and pay £750 to the man’s sister for the significant distress she experienced.

Cllr Josh Fenton-Glynn, Calderdale Council’s cabinet member for adult services and wellbeing, said:

“We made mistakes which we sincerely regret. We are deeply sorry for the significant distress and impacts caused for both the complainant and her late brother, and we have sent her a formal apology.

“We are already taking proactive steps to make sure these mistakes don’t happen again and to implement the Ombudsman’s recommendations. 

“We take our adult social care and housing support responsibilities very seriously, and will use the lessons learned in this case to improve the way we protect vulnerable people in future.

“We accept that the service we provided in this case didn’t meet our high standards, and that our communication with the complainant, and between our housing and adult social care services, should have been better.

“We have delivered some new training, and more is planned, to ensure staff in each service area work together effectively to meet people’s social care and housing needs. We have done a full audit of the case to learn from it and to inform further training for staff, and we have implemented new internal procedures and guidance.”