South Gloucestershire Council (22 004 316)
Category : Adult care services > Assessment and care plan
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 26 Jul 2022
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council illegally keeping Mr B from caring for his wife, lying, and disrespecting him. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault with the actions taken by the Council and further investigation could not add to the Council's response or make a different finding of the kind Mr B wants.
The complaint
- Mr B says the Council are illegally keeping him from his wife, lying to him and show him no respect.
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 law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- The Council considered Mr B’s complaints and further investigation by the Ombudsman could not add to this. There is not enough evidence of fault with decisions made in Mrs B’s best interests regarding where she should live or who she should see. In the absence of fault, we cannot comment on the merits of decisions taken by councils.
- If Mr B disagrees with decisions taken by the Council in Mrs B’ best interests he can ask the Court of Protection to consider his concerns and it would be reasonable for him to do so.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr B’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault with the actions taken by the Council and further investigation could not add to the Council's response or make a different finding of the kind Mr B wants.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman