Summary: Miss B complained the Council has failed to arrange the care package set out in her care and support plan. She also says the Council failed to stick to the communication plan it agreed following a previous Ombudsman’s decision. We find the Council was at fault for its delays in securing the care package. The Council has agreed to our recommendations to address the injustice caused by fault.

The complaint

1. Miss B complained the Council has failed to arrange the care package set out in her care and support plan. She also says the Council failed to stick to the communication plan it agreed following a previous Ombudsman’s decision.
2. Miss B says she is stressed, depressed and anxious because of the Council’s failings. She is struggling without the support she is entitled to.

Back to top

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. Service failure can happen when an organisation fails to provide a service as it should have done because of circumstances outside its control. We do not need to show any blame, intent, flawed policy or process, or bad faith by an organisation to say service failure (fault) has occurred. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1), 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. I considered information from Miss B. I made written enquiries of the Council and considered information it sent in response.
6. Miss B and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments received before making a final decision.

Back to top

What I found

Relevant legislation and guidance

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. The Care Act 2014 gives councils a legal responsibility to provide a care and support plan (or a support plan for a carer). The care and support plan should consider what needs the person has, what they want to achieve, what they can do by themselves or with existing support and what care and support may be available in the local area. When preparing a care and support plan the council must involve any carer the adult has. The support plan must include a personal budget, which is the money the council has worked out it will cost to arrange the necessary care and support for that person.
9. Direct payments are monetary payments made to individuals who ask for them to meet some or all of their eligible care and support needs. They enable people to arrange their own care and support to meet those needs. The council must ensure people have relevant and timely information about direct payments so they can decide whether to request them. If they do so, the council should support them to use and manage the payment properly.

What happened

10. This chronology provides an overview of key events in this case and does not detail everything that happened.
11. Miss B receives a care package from the Council. She is assessed as needing 17 hours of support per week. In March 2022, the provider that was supporting Miss B said it would end the care package. Its last day of support was 10 March.
12. Miss B raised a previous complaint to the Ombudsman about the Council. We upheld the complaint and one of the agreed actions was for the Council to draw up a communication plan and call Miss B every Tuesday.
13. Miss B contacted the Council in April. She said it had failed to provide her with any support since 10 March. She also said she could not cope with managing a direct payments package, and she wanted it to find her another provider. The Council responded and agreed to look for another provider.
14. The Council contacted several providers throughout April and May. They replied and said they could not support Miss B.
15. Miss B emailed the Council at the end of May and asked for an update on her care package. The Council explained the difficulties it was having sourcing a suitable provider.
16. Miss B raised a formal complaint to the Council in June about its failure to provide support for three months. She also said it failed to communicate with her and she had to chase for updates.
17. The Council made several referrals for Miss B to receive help from an advocacy service and an autism support service in July.
18. The Council reviewed Miss B’s care package in August and noted six hours of support was appropriate for her needs.
19. The Council responded to Miss B’s complaint at the end of September. It partially upheld her complaint. It said the delay in finding a provider was significant, and the search was ongoing. It apologised for the delays. It also said its weekly telephone call was not as consistent as it could have been, but it had recently improved. It said it noted she disagreed with the reduction in her support hours. It said it would continue to seek 17 hours of support.
20. The Council found a provider to support Miss B in November. Miss B declined the provider as she said she tried to call it multiple times without success and so was concerned about its reliability.
21. The Council found a different provider (Provider X) later that month which Miss B accepted. Provider X visited Miss B in December and agreed to initially provide four hours of support per week which would increase over time.
22. Miss B received some support from Provider X a few days later. She contacted the Council and raised concerns her support workers could not speak fluent English. She said she needed clear communication.
23. Provider X said it could no longer fulfil the care package due to Miss B’s requests that its staff speak a high level of English. The Council agreed to support Miss B with finding a personal assistant through a direct payments package.
24. The Council visited Miss B in February 2023 to discuss direct payments and different advertising routes to recruit a personal assistant. It placed job adverts on the recruiting website.
25. Miss B asked the Council to increase her support hours to 20 hours per week to help her with recruiting a personal assistant. The Council agreed to this.
26. Miss B employed a personal assistant at the end of May.

Back to top

Analysis

27. The Council has a duty to meet the care and support needs of any person that is eligible. In Miss B’s case, she was without care and support for 14 months.
28. The Council says it worked extensively with partner agencies and Miss B to find a suitable provider. However, there are challenges in the adult social care sector with a national shortage of staff. This made it difficult to identify suitable support.
29. I recognise the difficulties the Council faced in finding a suitable provider for Miss B. I also note it made referrals to other services to explore what alternative support was available to Miss B. However, its delay in providing the support in Miss B’s care and support plan is a service failure. This caused Miss B distress and upset over an extended period. She had to cope without the support she is entitled to.
30. With regards to the Council’s communication with Miss B, there were a few occasions when it did not call on the specified day as agreed in the communication plan. However, on most of those occasions the Council arranged a home visit with Miss B instead of a call or it was in contact with her via email so there was not any significant lapse in communication. The records show the Council communicated extensively with Miss B throughout. Therefore, I do not find fault.

Back to top

Agreed action

31. To remedy the injustice caused by fault, by 31 July 2023 the Council has agreed to:

• Apologise to Miss B.
• Pay Miss B £800 for the distress caused to her from the loss of service.

32. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

Back to top

Final decision

33. There was fault by the Council, which caused Miss B an injustice. The Council has agreed to my recommendations and so I have completed my investigation.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman