Summary: Ms X complains about delays by the Council in concluding and sending her copies of its assessments. I have found fault in the Council’s actions because delays incurred by the Council were unreasonable to Ms X. These delays caused an injustice to Ms X as she was later deemed eligible for Council support that she did not receive until it concluded its assessment. Further, Ms X spent time chasing and complaining to the Council. The Council has agreed to our recommendations.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains about assessments undertaken by the Council. Ms X says the Council have failed to provide a copy of its Carer’s Assessment and its Social Care Needs Assessment was delayed and is not complete. Ms X also complains the Council failed to accommodate her reasonable adjustments when it communicated with her. Ms X would like the Council to pay for an independent assessment and to provide a financial remedy for inconvenience.

Back to top

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. 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)
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)

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

4. I considered the complaint documents and information Ms X provided. I made enquiries with the Council and considered its comments and the documents it sent. I invited Ms X and the Council to comment on my draft decision.

Back to top

What I found

Law and guidance

Assessment

5. Sections 9 and 10 of the Care Act 2014 require Councils to carry out an assessment for any adult with an appearance of need for care and support. They must provide an assessment to everyone regardless of their finances or whether the council thinks the person 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. Councils must carry out assessments over a suitable and reasonable timescale considering the urgency of needs and any variation in those needs. Councils should tell people when their assessment will take place and keep them informed throughout the assessment.

Carer’s Assessment

7. Where somebody provides or intends to provide care for another adult and it appears the carer may have any needs for support, the council must carry out a carer’s assessment. A carer’s assessment must seek to find out not only the carer’s needs for support, but also the sustainability of the caring role itself. This includes the practical and emotional support the carer provides to the adult.

What happened

Prior to the assessments being carried out

8. The Council contacted Ms X in April 2021 to arrange a Carer's Assessment. Ms X advised the Council she was waiting on the outcome of a meeting and so she postponed arranging the Carer’s Assessment.
9. The Council contacted Ms X again in June 2021, this time to arrange a Social Care Needs Assessment and Carer’s Assessment. Ms X advised the Council that she was still waiting on an outcome to the meeting and so again postponed arranging the Carer’s Assessment and the Social Care needs Assessment.
10. The Council arranged two separate dates to undertake the Social Care Needs Assessment and Carer’s Assessment through Ms X’s advocate, Mr A. Ms X requested the Carer’s Assessment be rescheduled. The Council contacted Ms X and Mr A to schedule the Carer’s Assessment for late July 2021.
11. Ms X also has an additional advocate, Ms Y who was assisting her.

Social Care Needs Assessment

12. The Social Care Needs Assessment was carried out as scheduled in July 2021.
13. Later in July 2021, Ms X chased the Council for a copy of the draft assessment. The Council informed Ms X that it was awaiting medical evidence before the draft could be concluded.
14. In August 2021, the Council proposed to Ms X that it could contact her GP to get the information required to complete the assessment. Ms X informed the Council that she did not give consent to for it to contact her GP for the information. Later that day, the Council sent Ms X a draft copy of the details discussed during the assessment.
15. Later in August 2021, Ms X chased a copy of the Social Care Needs Assessment. The Council informed Ms X that the Social Care Needs Assessment was incomplete as it was still waiting on medical evidence. The Council advised Ms X that once it had the medical evidence, it would send her a copy of the final draft before sending it through for authorisation.
16. In September 2021, the Council chased Ms X, Mr A and Ms Y for an update on the medical records that were outstanding. Ms Y informed the Council that she would chase for the records and queried whether it had access to all Ms X’s medical records. The Council informed Ms Y that Ms X had not given consent.
17. Later in September 2021, Ms Y provided the Council with the information required to complete the assessment.
18. Ms X contacted the Council for an update and in November 2021, the Council acknowledged that a write up had not yet been concluded. The Council advised Ms X that a key member of staff was not currently in office and would provide a more substantive update on their return.
19. Later in November 2021, Ms X formally complained to the Council that her Social Care Needs Assessment had not yet been written up. The Council informed Ms X that the member of staff it was waiting on had not returned to work as scheduled and would be returning in January 2022.
20. In response to Ms X’s complaint, in December 2021, the Council advised her that the assessment would be finalised upon the key member of staffs return to office.
21. Later in January 2021, the Council wrote to Ms X to apologise for its delay and sent her a copy of the Statement of Needs from its finalised assessment.

Carer’s Assessment

22. The Carer’s Assessment was carried out as scheduled in July 2021.
23. Throughout August 2021, Ms X and the Council were in dialogue to discuss elements of the draft Carer’s Assessment. Ms X disagreed with some aspects of draft Carer’s Assessment, and the Council advised Ms X that she could write her own account to be included in the draft. Ms X informed the Council that she did not want to write her own account.
24. In mid-August 2021, Ms X wrote to the Council with additional points she wanted included in the assessment. The Council later advised Ms X that the Carer’s Assessment had already been sent for authorisation.
25. Later in August 2021, Ms X chased a copy of the assessment. The Council informed Ms X that the assessment was being reviewed by the Head of Service so could not be released before approval. Ms X informed the Council that she did not understand why she could not have a copy of the assessment. The Council informed Ms X it would pass on her concerns.
26. The Council say it sent Ms X a hard copy of the Care Plan and the Carer’s Assessment in late September 2021. The Council also says it sent Ms Y an email which included attachments of the completed Care Plan and the Carer’s Assessment. Ms X says she did not receive a copy of the documents.
27. Ms X contacted the Council for an update in November 2021. The Council ensured Ms X she would receive a copy of the Carer’s Assessment and Care Plan.
28. Later in November 2021, Ms X complained to the Council that she had not received a copy of the Carer’s Assessment or Care Plan. In December 2021, the Council sent Ms X a copy of the Carer’s Assessment and Care Plan alongside a response to her complaint.

Reasonable adjustments

29. Ms X’s reasonable adjustments state that all contact should be in writing by either email or letter. It specifically states communication should not be by telephone. The Direct Payments Team phoned Ms X in October 2021 contrary to her reasonable adjustments.

Analysis

30. The Care Act does not specify or provide any guidance about how long any type of assessment process should take. The statutory guidance states that an assessment should be carried out over an appropriate and reasonable timeframe taking into account the urgency of the needs or situation and consideration of any fluctuating needs.

Social Care Needs Assessment

31. The Council first contacted Ms X in April 2021, however it did not undertake the Social Care Needs Assessment until July 2021. This was due to issues concerning the suitability of an advocate and Ms X awaiting the outcome of a meeting.
32. Once the Council had completed the assessment in July 2021, it informed Ms X that it required further medical information before it could conclude the draft. Ms X did not give consent to the Council to collect the information itself and it did not receive it until September 2021 from Ms Y.
33. The Council had all the information it required to finalise the assessment in September 2021, but it did not do so until January 2022. The Council have advised that the social worker responsible for the assessment was absent from work. Whilst the Council cannot be responsible for unforeseen staff absence, it is unreasonable that Ms X’s assessment was not concluded until 4 months later.
34. These delays caused Ms X an injustice, because once the Council finalised its assessment, it concluded that Ms X was eligible for support from the Council. Had the Council finalised its assessment without delay, Ms X would have benefitted from support from the Council earlier. There is further injustice to Ms X as she had to chase the Council and complain to it to conclude its assessment when it should have already reasonably done so.
35. The Council have acknowledged that there were delays in the final write up of the assessment. The Council has provided a partial remedy to Ms X; it has apologised and given an explanation.

Carer’s Assessment

36. The Council first contacted Ms X in July 2021 about undertaking a Carer’s Assessment.
37. The assessment was finalised in August 2021. The Council says it sent a hard copy to Ms X and a copy of the assessment in an email to Ms Y, in September 2021. Ms X says she did not receive the hard copy. It is not clear if Ms Y received a copy through email either and whether she provided a copy to Ms X. It is also not clear why the Council did not directly email Ms X a copy.
38. Ms X complained to the Council in November 2021. Despite informing the Council she had not received a copy, the Council only resent a copy once it concluded its complaint investigation in December 2021, 4 months after it finalised the assessment.
39. Although the Council says it sent Ms X and Ms Y a copy of the final assessment, Ms X did not receive it. It took the Council 3 months to resend Ms X a copy. This caused Ms X an injustice, as she had to chase the Council and complain to it to receive the documents which she had not received.

Reasonable adjustments

40. The Council has sent a copy of the reasonable adjustments it has documented for Ms X. It has a policy for reasonable adjustments which can be found in its Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Framework online. The call to Ms X would have caused her distress, however the Council have apologised for the staff member’s oversight, and this is a fair outcome.

Recommended actions

41. To acknowledge the impact on Ms X and to prevent further problems, the Council has agreed to:
1. Explain what it will do to prevent staff absence delaying any part of the assessment process in future.
2. Explain what it will do to mitigate against final assessment documents not being received by recipients.
3. Pay Ms X an amount of £300. This amount is for the time and trouble Ms X incurred chasing and complaining to the Council. Further, this amount is also in recognition of support the Council would have otherwise provided earlier if not for delays in concluding its Social Care Needs Assessment.

Final decision

42. I have found fault in the time it took the Council to conclude and send Ms X copies of its finalised assessments. Ms X missed out on support the Council would have otherwise provided earlier. Further, Ms X spent time chasing and complaining to the Council for unreasonable delays which would have been inconvenient.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman