Summary: The Council’s Occupational Therapy report contained errors. When Mr C and his advocate brought this to the Council’s attention it did not promptly amend the report. The Council will now do so. The errors did not affect the Occupational Therapy service’s findings about Mr C’s needs and what equipment the Council provided to help him. Mr C is happy with the outcome.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I will call Mr C, says there are factual inaccuracies in an occupational therapy assessment the Council carried out. These inaccuracies could affect his care needs assessment, and whether he receives the correct support to meet his needs. Mr C would like a different occupational therapist to carry out a new assessment.

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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. If we are satisfied with a council’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered:
• Information provided by Mr C, including during a telephone conversation.
• Information from the Council in response to my enquiries.
• The Care Act 2014 and associated guidance.
4. Mr C and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments received before making a final decision.

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What I found

5. Mr C lives alone and receives no care support. Sections 9 and 10 of the Care Act 2014 require local authorities to carry out an assessment for any adult with an appearance of need for care and support. They must provide an assessment to all people regardless of their finances or whether the local authority thinks an individual has eligible needs. The assessment must be of the adult’s needs and how they impact on their wellbeing and the results they want to achieve. It must also involve the individual and where suitable their carer or any other person they might want involved.
6. The Council must carry out the assessment over a suitable and reasonable timescale considering the urgency of needs and any variation in those needs. Local authorities should tell the individual when their assessment will take place and keep the person informed throughout the assessment.
7. As part of the assessment process, the Council referred Mr C to the Occupational Therapy (OT) service to assess his needs for bathroom aids and adaptations as he advised that he struggles with bathing, shaving, getting on and off the toilet and would like a walk-in shower room.
8. After the visit, the Council sent Mr C a copy of the OT report. Mr C wrote back with some factual errors. For example, the report said he had no issues with his vision, but he wears glasses for reading. Mr C’s advocate also provided her notes from the meeting to refute some of what the Council recorded.
9. The Council says the comments Mr C and his advocate made did not affect the overall conclusion that Mr C needed support with bathing. The result of the OT assessment was the Council provided Mr C with some equipment to use the bath and fitted a rail to his bathroom to help him use the toilet.
10. A senior OT visited Mr C at home to discuss his concerns. Mr C said his social care assessment gave a better reflection of his health issues; the Council agreed to use this information to amend his OT report. The Council has not taken this action because of Mr C’s continued dissatisfaction with both the OT assessment and the social care assessment but will do so if Mr C now agrees. The senior OT found no need for further equipment or adaptations.
11. Mr C would like an OT that has not previously been involved in his case to complete an assessment. The Council says this is not required because despite his concerns the Council is satisfied it has captured his functional abilities and provided appropriate equipment, and a further OT assessment would unlikely reach a different outcome or achieve anything further.
12. Mr C was concerned that the inaccurate OT report would affect his social care needs assessment and thought the social care assessment could not be completed until his OT assessment was accurate. The social worker eventually reassured him she could complete the social care assessment, and if any changes were made to the OT assessment, she could then review whether it altered the social care assessment. Mr C says the OT issues caused some delay in the Council correctly assessing his social care needs.
13. Since Mr C’s complaint to the Ombudsman, the Council has concluded his social care assessment.

Was there fault causing injustice?

14. Mr C’s comments, and those of his advocate, are not about the result of the assessment, or the equipment he received. Mr C’s advocate, and the Council, record Mr C was happy with the equipment provided. The comments are about some factual errors. I agree with the Council that a further OT assessment is unlikely to achieve a different result and is therefore not a good use of its resource. The Council can keep Mr C’s and his advocates comments on file to offset what is written in his report or have offered to use information from his social care assessment which he has agreed the content of. This seems a reasonable way forward to answer Mr C’s concerns.
15. It would have helped resolve Mr C’s concerns if the Council had made changes to the OT report and sent him the new version so he could be reassured information the Council was holding about him is accurate. The Council could have done this based on Mr C’s and his advocates comments, despite ongoing issues about the social care assessment. Mr C’s concerns could have been resolved much quicker if this had taken place.

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Final decision

16. I have completed my investigation on the basis there was some fault in the Council’s recording of Mr C’s abilities, but it did not affect the overall conclusion about how to meet his needs. The Council’s OT service has provided Mr C with necessary equipment. The Council will correct the record based on the agreed social care assessment which will resolve Mr C’s concern about inaccurate data.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman