Summary: Mr C complained about the time it took the Council to carry out an appropriate care needs assessment of his mother, and a carer assessment of his sister. Mr C says this resulted in a delay in his mother and sister receiving the support they needed. The Ombudsman decided to discontinue his investigation into the complaint, because the complainant made the complaint too late.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Mr C, complained to us on behalf of his (late mother) and his sister, whom I shall call Ms D. Mr C complains that there was a delay by the Council with carrying out a Care Act assessment of his mother and a carer assessment of his sister. As a result, they only received the care support they needed in September 2017, rather than February 2017 when they approached the Council.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word 'fault' to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. If there has been fault which has caused an injustice, we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
3. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered the information I received from Mr C and the Council. I shared a copy of my draft decision statement with Mr C and the Council and considered any comments I received, before I made my final decision.

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What I found

5. Ms D contacted the Council on 1 February 2017. She said her mother had a fall and she asked support for her mother with washing and dressing. This is the first record the Council has on file of a request for care support from the family.
6. However, Ms D says she did not merely ask for help with dressing and washing, but for appropriate and adequate care for her mother given her medical conditions.
7. The Council says it carried out a screening assessment of Ms D’s mother on 17 February 2017, after which it referred her for Enablement Support. Enablement support is short term support to help people, who have experienced a deterioration in their health and/or have increased support needs, to relearn the skills required to keep them safe and independent at home. An Enablement OT visited Ms D and her mother on 28 February. The Council says the OT discussed and recommended care support. However, this was never implemented as Ms D’s mother went into hospital on 1 March.
8. There were further OT visits on 23 March and 25 April 2017, as well as further stays in hospital. During this time, Ms D moved in with her mother to provide support.
9. In May 2017, the Council put a small care support package in place of one 45 minutes morning visit per day. After another hospital stay between 14 and 20 May 2017, Ms D told the Council she needed more support, including night care. The Council subsequently increase the support package at the end of May 2017 to:
• Two daily visits of 45 minutes each
• Three hours a week sitting service
• Two weeks respite support per year
10. Ms D continued to inform the Council in June 2017 that she was struggling with her mother’s incontinence and asked for waking night support. However, the Council turned down Ms D’s request for an additional sitting service and a waking night service. Instead, the Council made a referral to an organisation who could provide one day a week of free waking night support. It also added an extra week of respite care.
11. In July 2017, the Council agreed to carry out a care review. Ms D said she needed four days of waking night support and four hours a day of sitting support (Monday to Friday). The Council decided in August 2017 to allocate one extra hour of sitting support, and one more week of respite care. It also decided to get more evidence of the night care provider and GP around night support needs.
12. After the Council obtained the additional information / reports, it agreed to a care package of:
• Two visits of 45 minutes each per day
• 8 hours of sitting support per week
• Four nights of waking night-time support
• Four weeks of respite care support per year
13. Mr C complains that, if the Council had carried out a thorough needs and carer assessment in February 2017, his mother and sister would have already received this large support package (personal budget) in February 2017, rather than September 2017. As such, Mr C says the Council should backdate the personal budget his mother received in September, to February 2017.
14. Mr C made an official complaint to the Council about this in December 2018. I asked Mr C and the Council for evidence to determine if Mr C and his family had asked the Council for this back payment before December 2018.
15. Mr C told me:
• His sister asked the Council at a meeting in September 2017 to backdate the increased personal budget to February 2017.
• His sister had subsequently made numerous telephone calls to the Council, in which she tried to get the increase backdated.
• His sister mentioned it again during a meeting with a social worker in May 2018, and during a meeting in September 2018.
16. The Council told me it reviewed its records and found no reference to the family asking for a back payment before December 2018.
17. I asked the Council to send me a copy of all the records it has with regards to this case, from September 2017 onwards. While there was evidence of continued contact and correspondence between Mr C’s sister and the Council, this was about different issues and not about a request to backdate the personal budget. I did not see any reference to the back payment being mentioned in any of the records from the Council, until December 2018.
18. The Council provided a response to Mr C’s complaint in April 2019, after which Mr C referred the complaint to the Ombudsman in July 2019.

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Assessment

19. The Ombudsman cannot investigate late complaints unless he decides there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to the Ombudsman about something a council has done. The 12 months period runs from the day the person affected had notice of the matters alleged in the complaint. Mr C says the Council should have backdated the personal budget that was awarded to his mother in September 2017, to February 2017. As such, Mr C could have first raised this issue / complaint in September 2017.
20. The Ombudsman can use his discretion if he believes that, due to circumstances, it was not reasonable for the complainant to have come to us within 12 months.
21. I did not see any reasons why Mr C could not bring this complaint to the Ombudsman within twelve months. As such, I decided not to exercise my discretion to investigate this late complaint.

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Final decision

22. For reasons explained above, I decided to discontinue my investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman