Lewisham Council has been ordered to pay £250 and apologise to a resident after repeatedly sending her documents which she could not read.

An investigation by the Local Government Ombudsman showed that the council had agreed to communicate with Ms X, the complainant, in large print but continued to send documents with regular-sized characters.

Ms X has a legal right to such adjustments according to the Equality Act 2010, which says that someone must not be treated worse just because of a "protected characteristic", such as disability.

Despite assurances to make 'reasonable adjustments' by increasing font size to 18, Lewisham Council consistently failed to do so.

The council continued to send documents which were not in large print.

This resulted in distress and inconvenience for Ms X, as it impacted her ability to fully engage with services.

Delay resolving the complaint

In addition to failing to meet Ms X's requirements, the council was also found to be at fault for an excessive delay in resolving the complaint.

It took the council nearly a year to issue the final complaint response, adding to Ms X's frustration.

Ms X initially complained to Lewisham Council about the situation, and they offered her £50 in recognition of the fault.

However, Ms X remained unhappy and brought her complaint to the Ombudsman.

The Local Government Ombudsman deemed the £50 financial remedy insufficient and ordered Lewisham Council to pay Ms X £250.

The council acknowledged its fault, and proposed a "tell us once service for people with reasonable adjustments" after Ms X's initial complaint.

However, as Ms X then continued to receive documents not in large print, the Ombudsman declared that this proposed service improvement did not address the issue.

Fines from the Ombudsman 

The Ombudsman's final decision sets out actions that the council must undertake within one month.

This includes apologising in writing to Ms X, paying the agreed £250 and reminding its staff of the importance of ensuring agreed reasonable adjustments are complied with.

Staff also need to be reminded to respond to correspondence within "reasonable timeframes".

Within two months, the council must review its methods of recording when reasonable adjustments are agreed and how this information is shared among different services.

Lewisham Council was also told it should provide evidence of these actions to the Local Government Ombudsman.

A spokesperson for Lewisham Council said: “We accept the findings of the ombudsman and are sorry that in this case we failed to make reasonable adjustments when communicating with the resident.

"We’re also sorry for the length of time it took to issue a response to the resident’s complaints.

"This is not good enough and we’re determined to better.

"We are taking action to ensure that all staff and services are reminded of the need to make reasonable adjustments and respond to correspondence within a reasonable timeframe.

"We’ve also agreed with the ombudsman that we will review how we record reasonable adjustments and how these are shared between services."