Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s management of Mrs X’s direct payments. This is because an investigation would be unlikely to result in a different outcome for Mrs X.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complained the Council made changes to its direct payments policy without properly notifying her. She also complains the changes have negatively affected her ability to use her direct payments.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide:

• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by Mrs X and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Mrs X has been in receipt of direct payments for several years. The Council is required to review the direct payments on an annual basis but concedes it failed to do so between 2020 and 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
6. In 2022 the Council carried out a review of Mrs X’s direct payments and advised Mrs X she could not use her direct payments to cover her personal assistant’s expenses.
7. Mrs X complained to the Council and said it should have consulted with her before changing its policy. She was also unhappy the Council failed to notify her of the changes. Mrs X told the Council she had previously used her direct payments to cover her personal assistant’s expenses and to do otherwise would mean she would be left out of pocket.
8. The Council investigated and partly upheld Mrs X’s complaint as it recognised it was at fault for failing to communicate with her properly regarding her direct payments. The Council explained that following retraining and procedural changes it was not changing its policy but regulating direct payments and this was in line with statutory guidance. The Council agreed it would assist Mrs X in using her direct payments, review information sent to service users regarding procedural changes and ensure that reasonable expenses were included in Mrs X’s support plan.
9. Mrs X remains unhappy with the Council’s actions and wants us to find it at fault. There was clear fault on the Council’s part when it failed to review Mrs X’s support plan for several years. However, there is no evidence the fault has caused Mrs X an injustice. The Council has explained the procedural changes it has made and put forward reasonable recommendations to address the impact the changes have made to Mrs X. These were satisfactory actions for the Council to take and an investigation would be unlikely to provide Mrs X with a different outcome.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because an investigation would be unlikely to result in a different outcome for Mrs X.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman