Summary: Ms X complained about the way the Council dealt with her requests for an assessment and the impact of this on her and her children. She says this caused “mental and physical suffering”. We recommended the Council apologise, arrange an assessment for Ms X, and pay her £650 for the stress, anxiety, frustration and lost opportunity it caused her. It will also take action to prevent similar problems for Ms X and others in future.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Ms X, complained about the way the Council dealt with her requests for an assessment and the impact this had on hers, and her family’s, lives.
2. Ms X says the lack of support placed a “burden of responsibility” on her children and this caused mental and physical suffering. Ms X has struggled to access necessary appointments and has no one locally to turn to.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word fault to refer to these. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information from both Mrs X and the Council.
6. Ms X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered their comments before making a final decision.

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What I found

Background

Assessment

7. 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.
8. 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.

Equality Act 2010

9. The Equality Act 2010 protects the rights of individuals and supports equality of opportunity for all. It offers protection in employment, education, the provision of goods and services, housing, transport and the carrying out of public functions.
10. The Equality Act makes it unlawful for organisations carrying out public functions to discriminate on any of the nine protected characteristics listed in the Equality Act 2010. They must also have regard to the general duties aimed at eliminating discrimination under the Public Sector Equality Duty.
11. The ‘protected characteristics’ referred to in the Act are:

• age,
• disability,
• gender reassignment,
• marriage and civil partnership,
• pregnancy and maternity,
• race,
• religion or belief,
• sex, and
• sexual orientation.
   

12. We cannot decide if an organisation has breached the Equality Act as this can only be done by the courts. But we can make decisions about whether or not an organisation has properly taken account of an individual’s rights in its treatment of them.

What happened

13. In 2019, Ms X referred herself to the Council by phone. The Council completed an initial contact assessment and arranged a visit but it says Ms X was out on the day. It referred her for an occupational therapy assessment and signposted her to an advice and support agency.
14. Two months after this, Ms X’s GP referred her for an assessment as she was struggling to manage day to day activities in her caring role for her children. This was sent through the safeguarding team.
15. A month later, the Council telephoned Ms X and left a message asking her to call back. An appointment was booked for the following week, but the Council says Ms X was out and the social worker was unable to contact her on her mobile.
16. Over a month later, the Council called Ms X again and got no answer.
17. At the end of April 2020, Ms X contacted the One Reading hub which referred her to voluntary support organisations.
18. Four months later, the Council visited Ms X but she was unwell in bed. The social worker advised they would call and try to arrange another home visit and would write if unsuccessful. After three weeks, with no record of further attempts to contact Ms X, the social worker discussed the case with her senior. They agreed that as they had been unable to make contact with Ms X and she had referred herself, she would be able to do this again when ready.
19. In early September, a mental health worker from children’s services contacted adult social care on behalf of Ms X. They said Ms X still wanted an assessment. The social worker said they would send a letter and text message to Ms X confirming an appointment the following week. On the day of the appointment, the Council sent Ms X a text message asking if she had received the letter and whether it would be convenient to visit that day. The social worker visited at the planned time but Ms X did not answer. A week later, the social worker discussed the case again and agreed to close the case and send a letter to Ms X advising she could call if she still needed support. They advised the children’s services worker.
20. In early November, Brighter Futures for Children submitted a referral with the same reason as the two previous referrals. The Council planned a joint visit with the adult services social worker and the children’s worker to take place a month later. They completed this visit and ordered some equipment. They also noted that they made a referral to a voluntary support service for support with filling in forms and applications, reading and responding to mail. However, it is unclear whether this was completed at the time, as another record in mid January states it completed a referral form for this. This record also notes that Ms X provided a phone number and agreed to voicemails and texts to the number. Also, that the Council offered support to Ms X on her bad days, taking responsibility away from her children, however it also noted that Ms X declined this. The reason it noted was that Ms X said she had not reached a point of needing or wanting care support. The Council closed the case as Ms X required no further support.
21. At the beginning of March 2021, Brighter Futures for Children (BFFC) requested a joint meeting with adult services. There is no record of any meeting and in September 2021, Ms X completed a self assessment. Council records note that Ms X was not happy to receive emails and did not provide a telephone number. The Council tried to telephone Ms X a few days later but got no response. It tried again unsuccessfully a few days later, about three weeks later, and a few days after that. It sent a letter to Ms X explaining that it had made several attempts to contact her and if no response by the beginning of November, it would assume she no longer wanted to go ahead and would close the case. It closed the case.
22. A month later, at the beginning of December 2021, Ms X completed another referral and asked the social worker to contact her on a new email address or by mobile phone. The Council sent an email to Ms X several days later but it bounced back. The Council sent another email to Ms X a few days later asking if she received an email the previous week and that if no contact by 23 December, it would close her referral. Ms X responded to this email and asked if she could submit her PIP (personal independence payment) form as this explained her issues. The social worker confirmed that she should do this. After the Christmas break Ms X advised that she was struggling to send of the form but eventually managed to do this and asked for a face to face assessment in view of her communication difficulties. She said she was only able to type on a good day.
23. In March 2022, BFFC asked how long it would take to complete an assessment. There is no note of a response to this.
24. In May BFFC asked again. Ms X was still on the waiting list.
25. Ms X complained to the Council and in August 2022 it investigated her complaint. It upheld elements of her complaint in relation to:
• her request for assistance which started in November 2019 and for which she was still on the waiting list.
• the impact the lack of support had on her and her children.
26. The investigation identified learning from the complaint and made recommendations around:
• Considering person-centred ways of communicating with people who struggle with communication.
• Considering assistive technology that provides voice recognition and would support Ms X responding to emails.
• A formal advocate to be in place to support Ms X with attending meetings, appointments and accessing support networks.
27. Ms X strongly disagrees with the Council’s records of its attempts to contact her and says its investigation contains many inaccuracies.
28. Ms X says she now has an appointment for a needs assessment.

Was there fault which caused injustice?

29. Ms X was clearly struggling to access the assessment process and the Council should have recognised this may have been due to disabilities. I am satisfied that, on the balance of probabilities, the Council did not properly consider Ms X’s rights under the Equality Act 2010. The Council should have considered, much sooner, whether she needed an advocate or similar support to access its services. This should not have been a learning outcome of an investigation after almost three years trying to get an assessment. The number of referrals made by other agencies, and children’s services particularly, should have alerted the Council to the difficulties and need for an assessment. This was fault and caused undue and significant stress, anxiety and frustration. Ms X also lost the opportunity to have support over these three years.

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Agreed action

30. To remedy the injustice identified above, I recommended that, within one month of my final decision, the Council:
• Apologise to Ms X in writing, setting out the faults identified above and the actions it has taken or will take, to avoid similar faults in future.
• Pay Ms X £650 for the stress, anxiety, frustration and lost opportunity.
• Arrange, with the help of an advocate for Ms X, a care needs assessment. It should consider whether this should be a multidisciplinary assessment and whether it should be combined with children’s assessments.
• Ensure it has a clear understanding of Ms X’s communication needs and any reasonable adjustments it needs to make to enable her to access its services.
• Provide evidence of the action it has taken to implement the service improvements identified in its complaint investigation (as summarised in paragraph 26).
31. The Council has agreed to complete these actions and should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Final decision

32. I have completed my investigation and uphold Ms X’s complaint. When the Council completes the agreed actions, it will remedy the injustice it caused as far as possible.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman