Summary: Mrs M complained to us that the Council failed to carry out a care assessment of her daughter, as well as a carer assessment, since June 2020. Mrs M said this resulted in them not receiving the support they both needed. The Ombudsman found the Council was at fault for its delay in carrying out these assessments. The Council has agreed to apologise, pay Mrs M £2,700 and her daughter £1,800, and put actions in place to avoid a possible reoccurrence.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Mrs M, complained to us on behalf of herself and her daughter, whom I shall call Ms D. Mrs M complained the Council has failed to carry out a needs assessment for her daughter, which she asked for in June 2020. She said that, as a result, her daughter has continued to live with them at home, where she has had to support her. This has impacted Mrs M and her daughter, as Mrs M herself has had less time to spend with her own friends and do things with her husband, which she said has affected her relationship.
2. Mrs M also complained that, during this time, the Council failed to contact her to update her about any progress / delays / timeframes.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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)
4. 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

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

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What I found

Relevant legislation and guidance

6. The Care and Support Statutory Guidance says that a council should start and complete a needs assessment within a reasonable timescale, taking into account the urgency of needs. The purpose of an assessment is to identify the person’s needs and how these impact on their wellbeing, and the outcomes that the person wishes to achieve in their day-to-day life.
7. It also says that carers can be eligible for support in their own right. Where an individual provides or intends to provide care for another adult and it appears that the carer may have any level of needs for support, a council must carry out a carer’s assessment. Carers can be eligible for support whether or not the adult for whom they care has eligible needs. 

What happened

8. Mrs M’s daughter, who is in her 20s, has autism and lives with her parents. Mrs M said her daughter cannot be left alone for long periods of time, and certainly not at night. Mrs M said she asked the Council in 2020 to carry out a needs assessment so her daughter could move out of the house and into a supported living environment where she could be supported and strive.
9. Mrs M contacted the Council in June 2020 to ask for an assessment of her daughter’s needs. The Council’s record states Mrs M wanted an assessment to look at what can be put in place for her daughter going forward. However, Mrs M told me that, as of December 2021 (18 months later), the Council had still not allocated a social worker to carry out her daughter’s assessment.
10. The Council has said that:
• It initially agreed with Mrs M that it would make a referral for Ms D to the Autism Specialist Pathway. It said that, through this, her daughter would first receive support to improve her skills, before the Council would carry out a needs assessment. However, it was reported in August 2020 the Council had not commissioned such a pathway.
• It took then until November 2020 before it referred Ms D’s case to the Physical Disability Team for a care act assessment. The record states that Mrs M was providing a lot of support at home with all aspects of her daughter’s daily living and home life.
• The Council did not rate the assessment referral as urgent, because the family was currently managing well. The Council advised Mrs M that the waiting list was lengthy and if circumstances and urgency changed in the interim, the family should contact the Council.
• Her daughter has been on a waiting list for a social worker. However, the staffing situation in the “All Age Disability Service” has been ‘very challenging’; while experiencing a high demand.
• The Council monitors the waiting times by monitoring the potential risk to the service users who are waiting. As Ms D lives at home where she receives informal support, there were no imminent concerns.
11. Mrs M said she and her husband were no longer able/willing to provide the care her daughter needed. A record from February 2021 states that an officer should contact Mrs M “to make her aware that we have received the referral and looking for an urgent allocated worker to assess”. An officer told Mrs M in February 2021 that her daughter’s assessment would be ‘put on a fast track’. This did not happen, and Mrs M made a formal complaint about the delays in March 2021. Despite this, the Council had still not allocated a social worker as of December 2021 to assess Ms D.
12. Mrs M says she wants her daughter to go into supported accommodation with a support package. She told me the delays have caused:
• Her daughter an injustice because she has still not moved into some form of supported living with support to meet her needs to socialise, access clubs, develop skills and make friends.
• She and her husband have had to continue to provide care to their daughter at home and supervise her, being unable to leave her at home overnight etc. She did not receive the respite care she has needed.
13. In response to my enquiries, the Council allocated the case to a social worker in February 2022, who has since been assessing Ms D’s needs, and her mother’s needs as her carer.
14. Ms D’s needs assessment has identified so far that:
• She has Autism and can have periods of time when she has increased anxiety and stress. During those times, she needs significant support with most aspects of daily living, including personal care. During other periods her support needs are significantly less.
• She needs support with shopping (travelling to the shop) and cooking.
• Ms D explained she doesn’t really have any friends or a social life and this is something she would like support with to establish. She would like a social outlet and see what is going on locally in the community and become part of that.
• Ms D needs support to ensure she is safe in her own home. She needs prompts with tasks in the home and benefits from things being broken down into stages.
• Ms D is currently in part-time employment, whereby she has support to travel to and from work and has funding for a support worker with this from the DWP. She is also volunteering one day per week.
• Ms D is happy to live at her parent’s place at the moment.
15. Mrs M completed and returned her carer assessment form in March 2022. It said that:
• Her daughter is well now but has been worse before.
• She provides support to her daughter with cooking, managing money, supervision to ensure personal safety, support with mental health needs and support to go out and about.
• Her daughter needs some oversight during the day, and she has never left her daughter alone overnight. As such, it has been very difficult for her to spend time alone with her husband, going out or going away for the weekend. This has impacted their relationship.
• As her daughter does not have friendships or a social life, she has had to fill this gap by doing most things with her daughter. This has meant Mrs M has neglected her own friendships at times.
16. In response to my request for an overview of the average time it has taken, since June 2020, for the All Age Disability Service to allocate an allocated worker and to carry out a needs assessment (for potential new clients), the Council said that:
• The All Age Disability Service has a waiting list of 370 people, half of which are clients waiting for a reassessment / review.
• The team have been carrying an unprecedented number of vacancies since 2019, operating on a 46% capacity. Despite recruitment drives, we have been unable to successfully recruit staff permanently or via an Agency. This has meant that urgent referrals, Court of Protection and Safeguarding concerns have taken priority in allocations. 
• In addition, pressures of the pandemic have meant that internal resources have been prioritised towards the Hospital teams in supporting with the Covid. average waiting time.
17. The Council has said it will develop a support plan for Ms D with her and her mother. This is ongoing work and Ms D will need time to build a working relationship with the social worker and think about what opportunities are available to her. The social worker has made a referral to the accommodation list as the individual would like to move to her own home in the future. 

Analysis

18. I found the Council has been at fault for an unreasonable delay in assessing Ms D’s needs. As such, the Council should provide a financial remedy for the delay in enabling and supporting Ms D to achieve the outcomes in her life that she wants to achieve, including living more independent and making friends. The Council should complete Ms D’s needs assessment and support plan without further delays.
19. The Council also failed to assess her mother’s needs as Ms Ds carer. While waiting for her daughter’s assessment, Mrs M had to continue to provide support to her daughter. If the Council had assessed Mrs M’s needs earlier, it could have provided her with much needed support in the interim, such as respite care. As such the Council should pay Mrs M a financial remedy for having to continue to provide daily support to her daughter, even though she no longer wanted to do this, and the lack of opportunities this resulted in for Mrs M with regards to doing the things she would have wanted to do.
20. Furthermore, it would have been good practice if the Council would have routinely updated Mrs M as to what was happening with her request for an assessment.
21. In response to my draft decision, the Council has said it is in the process of commissioning a piece of work with external consultants to realise the ambition for delivering Mental Health, Autism and Learning Disability services. It said there will be a strong emphasis on the Autism Pathway to ensure this addresses the needs of individuals who have complex needs including those high functioning individuals.

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Agreed action

22. I recommended that, within four weeks of my decision, the Council should:
• Apologise to Mrs M and her daughter for the faults identified above and the distress these have caused them.
• Pay £1,800 to Ms D and £2,700 to Mrs M.
• Put respite care in place to support Mrs M.
23. Within eight weeks, the Council should
• Put a mechanism in place to ensure that carers are supported while the person they care for await a needs assessment.
24. The Council has told me it has accepted my recommendations.

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Final decision

25. For reasons explained above, I have upheld the complaint.
26. I am satisfied with the actions the Council will carry out to remedy this and have therefore decided to complete my investigation and close the case.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman