SOCIAL services are investigating how a confidential report was sent to the wrong family.

Sophie O’Reilly, 22, has lodged a formal complaint with Essex County Council after the report was mistakenly sent to her home in Great Knightleys, Basildon.

She had written to the local authority raising concerns about lack of support provided by a social worker for her daughter Ruby, aged three.

Miss O’Reilly expected the package from social services to contain an apology letter, but was left shocked by what was inside.

She said: “I couldn’t believe it when I opened it up and saw a report about completely different people.

“I obviously haven’t gone through it in detail, but could see it was about something pretty terrible involving a family.

“It makes me frightened to think they might have sent my report to someone else.

“It’s an absolute disgrace and you wonder how many other people have been sent wrong reports.”

Miss O’Reilly did not want to go into detail about why she first contacted social services in early April, requesting support for her and Ruby.

She sent council bosses a letter a few weeks later complaining that the social worker assigned to her case was too inexperienced and showed little interest.

She has still not received a response to her original letter and now wants a full apology for being sent the wrong report, along with an explanation of how it was possible for this to happen.

She said: “I was really unhappy with my experiences of social services anyway, but this has made it much worse. I can’t understand how this could have happened.”

A spokeswoman for the local authority said: “Essex County Council takes very seriously any potential cases where sensitive information is mishandled. Officers are investigating this matter and we will liaise with the families involved.”