Summary: The Council was at fault for how it handled Mr Y’s care assessment and the subsequent complaint about this. As a result, Mr Y cannot be sure whether he is entitled to any support. The Council agreed to apologise, make a payment, and arrange to re-assess Mr Y’s care needs.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains the Council failed to properly carry out an assessment to assess her son, Mr Y’s care needs.

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. We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in the decision making, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
4. If we are satisfied with an organisation’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

5. As part of this investigation, I considered the information provided by Ms X. I made enquiries with the Council and considered the information received in response. I sent a draft of this decision to Ms X and the Council for comments.

Back to top

What I found

Assessment

6. 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.
7. 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

8. 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.
9. As part of the carer’s assessment, the council must consider the carer’s potential future needs for support. It must also consider whether the carer is, and will continue to be, able and willing to care for the adult needing care. (Care and Support Statutory Guidance 2014)

What happened

10. There has been extensive correspondence between Ms X and the Council since September January 2022. In this section of the statement I summarise key events but I do not refer to every single contact and communication.
11. Mr Y is Ms X’s adult son and lives with her. In January 2022, Ms X asked the Council to assess Mr Y’s care needs.
12. The Council carried out two home visits to Mr Y in February 2022 and a further home visit at the beginning of March 2022. The notes from the visits showed the social worker attempted to obtain Mr Y’s views and goals. The notes also showed the social worker discussed the possibility of services such as supported living and substance misuse services, however Mr Y did not want a referral to such services.
13. On 28 March 2022, the Council carried out a further home visit. The notes from the visit showed the social worker believed Mr Y was under the influence of drugs and would not accept support for assistance with drug use.
14. On 8 April 2022, the Council sent Mr Y a copy of the care plan it had created. The outcome of the assessment was that Mr Y’s case was closed as the Council considered he needed no further support. The Council also opened a carers assessment for Ms X.
15. On 27 April 2022, Ms X complained to the Council. Ms X said:
1. The outcome of the assessment was premeditated because of Mr Y’s substance use.
2. The quality of the assessment deteriorated when looking at Mr Y’s functional domains.
3. The assessment said Ms X was implicit in supporting Mr Y to meet people online.
4. There were no outcomes in the assessment.
5. The assessment did not consider the impact on Mr Y’s well-being.
6. The Council did not provide advice on complaints and appeals.
16. In response to Ms X’s complaint the Council held a meeting with Ms X and Mr Y’s advocate, in May 2022, to discuss her concerns with the care assessment. Mr Y did not attend this meeting.
17. Following the meeting the Council made amendments to the care plan. These included adding a section on Mr Y’s well being and discussing some of the outcomes in more detail. However the Council still considered Mr Y did not need any ongoing care and support.
18. In August 2022 the Council ended Ms X’s carers assessment due to limited engagement from her. The records show the social worker attempted to contact Ms X several times about the assessment from April to July 2022.
19. On 30 August 2022, the Council visited Ms X and Mr Y at home to discuss the complaint. The Council provided its final complaint response to Ms X and Mr Y on 14 September 2022. The Council said:
1. The assessment explored a number of potential services such as voluntary/enrichment services and accommodation. The Council said there was no evidence access to these services was prevented by cannabis use. However Mr Y indicated he was not willing to engage with these services or consider support to stop drug use. Mr Y would not be prevented from using statutory services due to his drug use but the assessment found he was not eligible for these.
2. It amended the care assessment in May 2022 and included more detail in the functional domains section.
3. A difference of opinion remained between Ms X and the social worker about how at risk Mr Y was from meeting people online.
4. It addressed the three outcomes which were missing from the original assessment in the amended assessment.
5. It included a section detailing the impact on Mr Y’s wellbeing in the new assessment.
6. It felt it was not necessary to provide information on complaints as it hoped Mr Y would approach it with any concerns.
20. The Council agreed to carry out a review of Mr Y’s care needs and carry out a carers assessment for Ms X.
21. Ms X remained dissatisfied and complained to the Ombudsman. Ms X said the Council had not completed a review into Mr X’s care needs or carried out a carers assessment. The Council, in response to my enquiries said it had not done this due to difficulties engaging with Mr Y and Ms X.

Back to top

Analysis

22. When considering complaints, we may not act like an appeal body. We cannot question the merits of the decision the Council has made or offer any opinion on whether or not we agree with the judgment of the Councils’ officers. Instead, we focus on the process by which the decision was made.
23. This means I cannot consider whether Mr Y has eligible care needs or make a determination on this point. This is a decision for the Council.

Care assessment

24. The care assessment the Council completed in April 2022 did not consider all of the eligible needs which could apply to Mr Y and did not discuss the impact on his wellbeing. This was fault.
25. As a result, Mr Y could not have been sure the Council adequately considered his needs and whether he required care and support.
26. The Council did amend Mr Y’s care assessment following Ms X’s complaint and included consideration about the impact on Mr Y’s wellbeing and discussed eligible needs. However, the Council agreed to carry out a review of Mr Y’s care needs following its complaint response.
27. While the Council said it has not been able to engage with Mr Y to carry out the review, the notes provided do not show that the Council has actively tried to arrange an assessment with Mr Y.
28. In relation to Ms X’s concerns that the Council pre-meditated the outcome of the assessment as Mr Y used drugs, I do not consider the Council at fault. The Council offered Mr Y services such as supported accommodation and other support services however he declined to receive support from these. In addition, as Mr Y expressed no desire to receive support with drug use the Council explained some services may be unable to provide support. If Mr Y had expressed a desire to receive support for drug use, he may have been able to access services.
29. The Council did not complete a carers assessment for Ms X. This was fault. The Council opened a carers assessment in April 2022 and closed this in August 2022 due to limited engagement from Ms X. While there are records of the social worker trying to chase Ms X up about this assessment, the Council could have carried out the assessment at the same time it was assessing Mr Y’s care needs.
30. The Council visited Ms X and Mr Y at home several times in February 2022 and March 2022. This would have been a good opportunity for the Council to discuss the care and support Ms X was providing to Mr Y and carry out the assessment. The fact the Council did not do this was a missed opportunity to complete a carers assessment for Ms X. As a result, Ms X is unsure as to whether she is entitled to any support with caring for Mr Y.

Complaint handling

31. The Council was at fault for how it handled Ms X’s complaint. Ms X initially complained in April 2022 and did not receive a response until September 2022.
32. While I recognise the Council, following Ms X’s complaint, had a meeting with her and tried to address concerns in the care assessment, it should have provided Ms X with a response. The Council could have provided Ms X with a complaint response stating what it intended to do. This would have allowed Ms X to continue to progress her complaint to the Ombudsman should she have wanted to.
33. After the Council issued a further assessment for Mr Y in June 2022, it still took the Council until September 2022 to provide a complaint response.

Back to top

Agreed action

34. Within one month of my final decision, the Council agreed to carry out the following:
1. Apologise to Ms X and Mr Y for the errors in the initial care assessment and for the time taken to provide a complaint response.
2. Pay Ms X £100 for the time taken to respond to her complaint and the day she experienced as a result in being able to bring her complaint to the Ombudsman.
3. Contact Ms X and Mr Y to arrange a re-assessment of Mr Y’s care needs and a carers assessment for Ms X.
35. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

Back to top

Final decision

36. I have completed my investigation and found the Council was at fault and this caused injustice. The Council agreed to the above actions to remedy the injustice caused.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman