Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Ms B’s complaint about the Council’s adult social care service. This is because the Council has recognised some service failings and apologised. Given the lapse of time, we cannot safely say the level of loss, harm and distress Ms B has suffered from the unresolved issues is significant enough to justify our involvement.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Ms B, complained that, for several years, she has experienced lack of communication, ignorance, discrimination and neglect from the Council’s adult social care service. Ms B told us pursing her concerns has been a very stressful and exhausting experience.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
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)
4. 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’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe:

• it is unlikely we would find fault, or
• the fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• it is unlikely further investigation will lead to a different outcome, or
• there is another body better placed to consider this complaint. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I have considered the information Ms B provided, her complaints to the Council and the Council’s responses. I have spoken to Ms B by telephone.

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What I found

6. Ms B first contacted us about her complaints against the Council in August 2019. The Council issued its final complaint response to this complaint shortly after that. It acknowledged Ms B had received poor service and had not received appropriate responses.
7. In October 2019 Ms B told us that, although the Council had upheld her complaints about most issues in its final response, there were some it had not addressed and some information was incorrect. She told us the Council repeatedly failed to meet its timescale for its reply. Ms B says the Council failed to acknowledge she had been waiting for a call back from a manager from July 2017 and she would consider the service she had been offered. Ms B says there are inaccuracies in the Council’s complaint response. For example, she contacted the Council’s manager on a date in 2018 rather than the other way round. She says the Council failed to explain why a piece of equipment the Council offered in early in 2017 was never delivered. Miss B told us she had to pay for what she needed herself. She is also seeking further details of the advice the Council gave to her early in 2018.
8. Ms B did not bring her complaint to us within 12 months of becoming aware of some of the issues she has raised in her complaint. But we can exercise discretion to consider late complaints if there are good reasons to do so such as delay in the Council’s complaint process. In this case there has been delay in the Council’s complaint handling.
9. If Ms B is seeking further details of the Council’s advice in 2018, she can make a subject access request to the Council. She can ask the Council to disclose all the personal information it holds about her which it is required to disclose under the Data Protection Act 1998. She would then be able see the information the Council holds for the relevant period.
10. Ms B has put considerable time and effort into pursuing her complaint. In due course the Council recognised there were some service failings and it apologised to Ms B. But Ms B has told us there are still some unresolved matters. We have to consider whether the injustice Ms B has suffered from the remaining unresolved issues is significant enough to justify us pursuing her complaint further. Given the lapse of time since the Council’s service failings, we could not now establish with sufficient certainty what would have happened had the Council not been at fault. That means we cannot safely say the level of loss, harm and distress Ms B has suffered from the unresolved issues is significant enough to justify our involvement.

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Final decision

11. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because the Council has recognised some service failings and apologised. Given the lapse of time in this case, we cannot safely say the level of loss, harm and distress Ms B has suffered from the unresolved issues is significant enough to justify our involvement.

Investigator’s final decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman