A series of failures by a council, which caused "distress" to a family with a disabled son, is to be investigated further after an unprecedented order by watchdogs.

Norfolk County Council failed to put together a legal care and support plan for the man, or an assessment for his mother, who was caring for him.

County Hall also bungled direct payments to the family and ended up owing them thousands of pound, leaving them without funds to pay for support they needed.

Norfolk County Council was rapped by the ombudsmanNorfolk County Council was rapped by the ombudsman (Image: Mike Page)

The Conservative-controlled council was also found, by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, to have been at fault over the recruitment of personal assistants to help the disabled man.

The ombudsman, which anonymised the family's name in its report, said the council had advertised for local students to work as personal assistants.

But when no suitable candidates were found, it refused to advertise in a different way, while the man's mother was effectively acting as an unpaid carer.

The ombudsman ordered the council to apologise and make almost £3,000 in payments. It was also instructed to meet with the man's mother to arrange recruiting a personal assistant and to finish the uncompleted care and support plans.

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But the watchdog also went further, referring the matter to the council's cross-party scrutiny committee to further investigate what went wrong. This is the first time this step has ever been taken in Norfolk. 

That committee will meet on August 21 to quiz officers.

A council spokesman said: "We have apologised for the handling of their assessment and care planning, and have written directly.

"We have reviewed this case in detail and we recognise that our actions fell short in this instance.

We have put right all the issues raised by the ombudsman and have made significant improvements in the way we manage care plans and to our direct payments policy."

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Steve MorphewSteve Morphew (Image: Denise Bradley)

However Steve Morphew, leader of the Labour group at County Hall, said: "The injustice to the individual appears to be a result of a substantial and significant systemic failure.

"The unique referral to the scrutiny committee by the ombudsman shows how serious this is.

"The committee has the power to commission an external review and set up proper councillor oversight of an action plan to start putting things right and I'll be pressing for this urgently."