Kent County Council (20 005 027)

Statement Not upheld Charging 16-Mar-2021

Summary: Mr X complained that the Council failed to treat savings in his wife’s sole bank account as a joint asset when calculating her contribution towards the cost of her residential care. We find the Council was not at fault in treating the savings as belonging solely to Mrs X.

Kent County Council (20 006 958)

Statement Closed after initial enquiries Assessment and care plan 16-Mar-2021

Summary: The Ombudsmen have decided not to investigate a complaint about mental health care being transferred from an NHS Trust to a Council without telling the family. This is because although there appears to have been fault, this has been acknowledged and the organisations have already taken action to put these right. We are therefore unlikely to achieve more by investigating.

City of Wolverhampton Council (20 007 401)

Statement Not upheld Safeguarding 16-Mar-2021

Summary: Mr X complained the Council failed to carry out a safeguarding investigation into his concerns about the care home where his late mother had lived. He felt there were errors in how the care home cared for her hearing. We have discontinued the investigation as we cannot achieve the outcome Mr X is seeking and there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by investigating the complaint now.

HC-One Oval Limited (20 007 882)

Statement Upheld Residential care 16-Mar-2021

Summary: Mrs C complained about the way the care home responded to her mother’s falls. We found with the care provider’s actions. The care provider has agreed to apologise to Mrs C and her mother and pay each of them a financial remedy for the distress they experienced. It will also share the lessons learned with its staff.

Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council (20 008 689)

Statement Closed after initial enquiries Assessment and care plan 16-Mar-2021

Summary: Mrs X complained on behalf of her brother, Mr Y, about his care assessment and care provided by the Council. Mrs X said that Mr Y was coming to physical harm because of this. We will not investigate this complaint because there is a more appropriate person to represent Mr Y.

Alysia Caring Limited (20 011 134)

Statement Closed after initial enquiries Residential care 16-Mar-2021

Summary: We will not investigate Ms B’s complaint about errors in her care plan. This is because the care provider has apologised for the fault and we are satisfied this remedies the injustice caused to Ms B.

Portsmouth City Council (20 011 689)

Statement Closed after initial enquiries Other 16-Mar-2021

Summary: We will not investigate Mrs B’s complaint that the Council has caused a rift between her and her mother, Mrs C. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault with the actions taken by the Council to warrant an Ombudsman investigation.

London Borough of Harrow (20 009 709)

Statement Upheld Transport 15-Mar-2021

Summary: Miss X complained the Council wrongly refused her application for a Disabled Person’s Parking (Blue) Badge. The Council failed to cross-check its existing records, but there is no evidence this would have affected the outcome of Miss X’s application. The Council reviewed its process for cross-checking existing information when considering Blue Badge applications. We were satisfied with the action the Council took, so we completed our investigation.

Lincolnshire County Council (20 004 464)

Statement Not upheld Charging 15-Mar-2021

Summary: There is no fault in the Council’s decision making during the financial assessment process. The Council has considered the law, guidance and reached a decision that deprivation of capital has occurred. The Council has reached a view on the amount of capital it will disregard without fault. New explanations of the gifting made at appeal had not been made to the Council before and it is at the Council’s discretion if it wants to consider a new assessment of this information.

Northumberland County Council (20 007 684)

Statement Upheld Assessment and care plan 15-Mar-2021

Summary: We upheld some of Mr X’s complaints about a council’s involvement with his mother Mrs Y when she went into a care home. There was a failure to signpost Mrs Y to independent financial advice and a failure to carry out a social care assessment. And the Council’s complaint response contained unhelpful, irrelevant detail. The Council will apologise for the avoidable distress to Mr X.