Buckinghamshire Council has apologised to a new mum over the way it treated her and her partner when their child was born.

The woman, known only as ‘Mrs B’, said she and her partner could not enjoy being parents due to the council questioning her ability to care for her child based on historic concerns.

This was due to her previous involvement with the council over concerns for the welfare of her older children, according to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, which upheld her complaint.

The watchdog, which investigates complaints against local authorities, found fault with the way the council treated the family and in a recent decision, recommended it apologise to Mrs B.

Anita Cranmer, the council’s cabinet member for children’s services and education told the Bucks Free Press: “We would like to apologise to the complainant in this case for any upset and distress caused by our actions.

“We have a legal duty to protect children in any case that has been brought to our attention and we take this responsibility extremely seriously.

“Our actions in this case were carried out with this in mind but we accept that some errors were made, and we will review our systems to ensure that learnings from this case are brought forward.”

When Mrs B’s youngest child, known as ‘C’, was born in late 2023, the council began the process for taking the child into care due to historic concerns about the mum’s ability to care for children.

The council also arranged for Mrs B, her partner, and C to be accommodated by it in a mother and baby unit for a 12-week parenting assessment.

Following this, the council stopped the process to take C into care and decided the couple could care for the child, with some additional support in place.

When C was born, the council placed them on a child in need plan, before starting the process to take the child into care.

But Mrs B’s solicitors said the process should not be started if a child is not on a child protection plan and the mum felt she and her partner were forced to go to a placement and ‘had no choice’.

The Ombudsman said she reported ‘many home visits by social workers and she felt as though they were invading their family life’ and the council were ‘judging’ the couple despite them doing what had been asked of them.

The council claimed it could not progress Mrs B’s complaint due to legal care proceedings being in progress and the concerns she raised not being separable from that process.

However, the authority failed to tell the mum she could contact the council once the process had ended, which the Ombudsman said amounted to ‘fault’, which caused her ‘avoidable time and trouble’.

The watchdog concluded the council caused Mrs B ‘injustice’ and recommended it investigate her complaint at ‘stage two of the children’s statutory complaint procedure’.