Devon County Council (21 006 241)

Statement Upheld Assessment and care plan 27-Mar-2022

Summary: Mrs F complains on behalf her mother (Mrs Z) who is a long term carer. Mrs F says the Council found Mrs Z was eligible for a break from her caring responsibilities and agreed to make arrangements to meet this through a direct payment. However, the Council later cancelled the payment when it assessed Mrs Z could pay for the support herself. At this stage, we found the Council was at fault for carrying out a financial assessment to identify whether Mrs Z should meet her own care and support costs. This is because Mrs Z’s needs arose from her responsibilities as a carer. The Council should instead have undertaken a carers assessment. This caused Mrs Z an injustice because she had to meet the costs of taking a break from caring herself. We have therefore recommended a remedy.

Wiltshire Council (21 016 076)

Statement Upheld Assessment and care plan 27-Mar-2022

Summary: The Council delayed meeting Ms C’s adult social care needs, and her parents needs as carers, because it was focussed on disputing ordinary residence. The Council is now progressing matters as it should. The Council will apologise and pay Mr & Mrs B £600 to acknowledge the impact on them.

Norfolk County Council (21 015 114)

Statement Closed after initial enquiries Assessment and care plan 25-Mar-2022

Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the way the Council carried out a mental capacity assessment for the complainant’s mother. This is because we could not obtain the information the complainant wants by investigating her complaint and the Court of Protection is best placed to reach a decision on a person’s mental capacity where there is a dispute.

London Borough of Hillingdon (21 008 043)

Statement Not upheld Assessment and care plan 24-Mar-2022

Summary: There is no evidence of fault in the way the Council assessed Mrs X’s finances when she requested help with her care.

Lincolnshire County Council (21 015 421)

Statement Upheld Assessment and care plan 24-Mar-2022

Summary: The investigation into this complaint is discontinued. The Council acknowledged fault in the way it dealt with requests for social care support for Mr Y and apologised. Any further investigation by this office could not achieve more.

Coventry City Council (21 014 350)

Statement Closed after initial enquiries Assessment and care plan 24-Mar-2022

Summary: Mr and Mrs A complain about the handling of their son, B’s Continuing Healthcare assessments by the Council. We will not investigate as the Council has responded appropriately and we would not recommend any further action on its part.

Kent County Council (21 006 335)

Statement Not upheld Assessment and care plan 23-Mar-2022

Summary: Mr D complained the Council’s Social Worker communicated poorly with him and failed to progress his housing application. As a result, he said he experienced distress and uncertainty. We found no fault in how the Council handled Mr D’s care support, nor his application for supported accommodation. It reached decisions it was entitled to make, so we cannot criticise the merits of its decisions.

Somerset County Council (20 008 735)

Statement Upheld Assessment and care plan 23-Mar-2022

Summary: Mrs M complained on behalf of her son, Mr P, about the actions of Somerset County Council (the Council) and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust (the Trust). The complaint was about the Council’s adult care services and the Trust’s mental health and complaints services. We have upheld elements of the complaint relating to social care needs assessment, claims about Mrs M’s behaviour, and complaint handling. We have not upheld other parts of the complaint. The Council and Trust accept our recommendations. We have therefore completed our investigation.

Wiltshire Council (21 002 690)

Statement Upheld Assessment and care plan 23-Mar-2022

Summary: Ms M complains, on behalf of three young adults, the Council gave them misleading advice about applying for social housing. The Council was at fault as it failed to manage their expectations about the likely success of their application given restrictions imposed by local housing providers. It failed to proactively address why they were not being considered for properties and to ensure they understood this. The Council has agreed to make a payment to remedy the distress and frustration this caused them. It has also agreed to review its procedures to be clearer about the likely success of applications from unrelated adults.

Nottinghamshire County Council (20 011 638)

Statement Not upheld Assessment and care plan 23-Mar-2022

Summary: We have not found fault in the way the Approved Mental Health Professional carried out an assessment of Mr C to decide whether to make an application to detain him in hospital.