A MOTHER who lives in the Rossendale Valley, forced to give up her son for adoption after being made homeless, today attacked the way social services handled a complaint she made and said: "They still haven't said sorry."

The Local Government Ombudsman today ruled that Lancashire County Council's social services was guilty of maladministration for failing to handle the complaint correctly.

But the ruling added that the maladministration did not cause an injustice to the complainant.

The complainant, named only as Miss Smith, had originally deplored the handling of her request to send and receive information about her son Mark, whom she had asked to go into care in 1998 because she had become homeless.

In 1999, he was placed with adoptive parents and preparations were made for Miss Smith to use The Adoption Mailbox, a system which allows birth parents to keep in contact with their children via the post.

Despite repeated calls, the Mailbox was never set up, although social services said the reason was Miss Smith's initial reluctance to join it. She later changed her mind but it had taken almost two years to set up.

Miss Smith lodged one complaint about the problem, then a second to a social services review panel when she was not happy with the outcome of the first investigation.

Unhappy with the review panel, she contacted the Local Government Ombudsman, who today revealed maladministration on the part of the county council.

The report said: "There are flaws with the way the county council handled the complaint, although I am not satisfied the delay in setting up the mailbox was the county council's fault.

"I am also critical of some aspects of the council's investigations. First, the investigation has reported into the actions of an individual officer but it should have been into the authority, which provides the service.

"Some facts were not checked, and this problem was not remedied by the complaints panel.

"These shortcomings were maladministration and I hope the council will learn from them. Staff training in handling complaints should be considered. However, I do not think this has caused injustice."

Miss Smith, 26, said: "I had to give up my son after being forced to move house because my ex kept coming round. I went into a homeless hostel and couldn't look after him any more.

"I had to be cruel to myself to be kind to him. It was the worst thing in the world to do. It has taken two years to get letters and cards to my son and it is their fault it has taken so long.

A county council spokesman said they could not comment on individual cases, especially adoption.