Summary: We will not investigate Mr B’s complaint about the Council’s failure to assess Ms C and charge her for her placement. This is because the Council has acknowledged its failings and remedied the fault.

The complaint

1. Mr B complained he was unaware his daughter, Ms C would be charged for her care in a residential setting. Although the Council acknowledged this and agreed not to charge Ms C until March this year, Mr B says it has still not completed a Care Needs Assessment and failed to consider Ms C’s Disability Related Expenditure (DRE) when charging her for care. Mr B says the Council should carry out an assessment and consider she is a young adult who needs to live an active life in the community.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Ombudsman investigates complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide:

• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants, or

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. We could not add to the Council’s responses. The Council apologised Mr and Mrs B were not informed about Ms C’s contribution towards her care charges and waived the invoice up to the date they were informed. We are satisfied any injustice caused by the fault has now been remedied.
6. Mr B complained the Council failed to consider Ms B’s Disability Related Expenditure (DRE). The Council has now considered this point and has agreed in addition to the £24.90 set out by the government as the minimum a person living in a care home should retain from their available income, to include Ms B’s DRE. We are satisfied any injustice caused by the fault has now been remedied.
7. Mr B says Ms C needs to live an active life in the community. We have not considered this point. Mr B will need to raise his concerns that Ms C’s placement, is not meeting her needs, with the Council in the first instance.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate Mr B’s complaint because we are satisfied with the actions taken by the Council to remedy the fault.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman