Summary: Mr B complains the Council is ignoring his requests for a new care manager. We have found no fault by the Council.

The complaint

1. Mr B complains the Council is ignoring his requests for a new care manager. Mr B says he does not get on with his current care manager and believes they are trying to force him to receive care and support from a care agency when he wants a personal assistant. Mr B feels the Council is not listening to him.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We cannot question whether a council’s decision is right or wrong simply because the complainant disagrees with it. We must consider whether there was fault in the way the decision was reached. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
3. 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

4. Another investigator spoke to Mr B about his complaint. I have considered the notes of these conversations and information the Council gave us in response to our questions.
5. I sent Mr B an EasyRead version of a draft of this decision statement, so that he and the Council had an opportunity to comment on it. I considered any comments received before making a final decision.

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What I found

What happened

6. Mr B has autism, a mild learning disability and a personality disorder. He also has diabetes and sometimes suffers from pain.
7. Mr B lives on his own. He used to spend time at his parents’ home, but in 2020 he could not do that because of the coronavirus lockdown and because they found it hard to support Mr B all the time. This was difficult for Mr B and he was therefore calling the Council and NHS for support. He sometimes called up to 20 times a day.
8. The Council gave Mr B a direct payment to pay a personal assistant (Mr C) to help Mr B with his food shopping, socialising, going to appointments and picking up prescriptions. Mr B’s father managed the money to pay Mr C. Ms J was Mr B’s care manager at the Council.
9. In August 2020, Mr C decided not to support Mr B from September and Mr B’s father told the Council he did not want to manage the direct payments anymore. This meant Mr B could no longer employ a personal assistant. The Council therefore had to use a care agency to provide support for Mr B.
10. The Council asked an agency carer to visit Mr B on 20 August 2020, but Mr B did not think the agency was suitable and refused to let the carer in. Mr B said the agency was to look after older people but he was not elderly. The Council found another agency. Mr B again thought the agency was not suitable. He said he did not want the care, but the carers kept visiting him for a week.
11. This caused Mr B anxiety and he told the Council he was unhappy and distressed about this. He asked for a new care manager as he was unhappy that Ms J had asked the agency to visit. He said he could look after himself but he wanted another personal assistant. The Council kept looking for a carer to help Mr B.
12. The Council had a meeting on 25 September 2020 to discuss the risks Mr B was facing as he had no support from a carer. It decided Ms J should continue to be Mr B’s care manager as it was better for him to have someone he knew rather than a new person.
13. Mr B was unhappy about this and complained to the Council. The Council replied to Mr B’s complaint on 22 October 2020. It said Ms J had tried to help Mr B find another personal assistant. Mr B was dissatisfied and came to the Ombudsman.

My findings

14. The Ombudsman cannot decide who Mr B’s care manager is, or which carer should support him. The Council has to decide these things. My role is to see whether the Council has made those decisions properly.
15. The Care Act 2014 gives the Council a duty to assess people who may have care and support needs. If the person has eligible care and support needs, the Council must meet those needs. It can do this by giving the person a direct payment so they can employ a personal assistant or by arranging the care and support itself. The Council can ask care agencies to provide this support.
16. The Council must assume that a person has the capacity to make decisions, unless it has assessed them and found they do not. An adult with capacity has the right to refuse to have care and support.
17. The Council had assessed Mr B and found he needed help to live independently, such as help with food shopping and socialising. After Mr C decided to stop supporting Mr B, Mr B wanted to have another personal assistant. But this was not possible as he could not manage the money to employ one himself and Mr B’s father did not want to do that role anymore. This meant the Council had to use a care agency instead to meet Mr B’s needs. Mr B was frustrated about this but it was not fault for the Council to ask care agencies to support Mr B.
18. Mr B was not happy with the agencies the Council found and it was distressing for him when the carers kept visiting after he had asked them not to. Mr B has the right to not want to use a particular carer and to refuse to have support, but there was no fault by the Council as it tried to provide him with support.
19. The agencies the Council asked to support Mr B were suitable as they worked with all adults, but the Council tried to find a carer Mr B was happy with. There was therefore no fault by the Council.
20. I can see this was a difficult situation for Mr B. He felt the Council was not helping him and that Ms J was not listening to him, so he wanted a new care manager.
21. The Council discussed Mr B’s concerns, but it decided it would be best for Ms J to stay as his care manager. It was entitled to decide this and it made this decision properly in a meeting with managers and the staff who worked with Mr B. I therefore cannot criticise the Council’s decision not to change the care manager.
22. I have not seen any evidence of fault by the Council in my investigation. I therefore do not uphold Mr B’s complaint.

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Final decision

23. There was no fault by the Council. I have completed my investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman