Staffordshire County Council (21 003 752)
Category : Adult care services > Assessment and care plan
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 20 Aug 2021
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the outcome of her father’s financial assessment in 2016. The complaint lies outside our jurisdiction because it is late and I see no good grounds to exercise discretion to consider it now.
The complaint
- The complainant, whom I shall call Mrs X, complains about the outcome of her father's financial assessment in relation to care charges, which was carried out in 2016.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse effect on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start an investigation if the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
- The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
- 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)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
- I sent the complainant a draft of this decision and considered her comments in response.
My assessment
- Mrs X complains on behalf of her father, Mr Y, who died earlier this year.
- In late 2016, the Council carried out a financial assessment for Mr Y in relation to care charges. The outcome of the assessment was that Mr Y was a self-funder.
- Mrs X has disputed the outcome of this assessment since then.
Final decision
- We will not investigate this complaint. The complaint lies outside our jurisdiction because it is late. The law says a complaint should be made to us within 12 months of the person first becoming aware of the matter. I see no good grounds to exercise discretion to consider this very late complaint now, almost five years on from the Council’s decision.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman