Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s adult social care assessment. That is because there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained about how the Council assessed his adult social care needs. He disagreed with the Council’s view of support he needed and the wording it had used in its assessment. He said the Council’s assessment was not person-centred. He said that had resulted in him losing support from commissioned services.
2. Mr X wants the Council to train staff in autism and for the Council to complete person centred assessments.

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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. 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 there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. In the Council’s complaint response, it said Mr X was assessed and supported by its Adult and Autism team. It said that staff in that team were trained in understanding autism. It said its adult social care assessment was based on information provided by Mr X when it first met him. It explained the purpose of the assessment was identify Mr X’s eligible needs and any potential risks if those needs were not met. It recognised that Mr X did not agree with its view of his needs and said that was reflected in his support plan.
8. Although Mr X is unhappy with this response, we will not investigate this complaint further. The Council has:
• allocated the assessment to an appropriately trained team,
• considered information provided by Mr X,
• taken account of the relevant legislation,
• applied its own professional judgement in assessing Mr X’s need, and
• recorded Mr X’s views in the support plan.
9. Therefore, there is not enough evidence of fault in how the Council completed the assessment to justify our involvement. And, despite Mr X being unhappy with the Council’s wording in the assessment, there is not enough evidence of fault in the language used to justify our involvement.
10. We will also not investigate Mr X’s complaint the Council’s actions resulted in him losing out on support. As part of Mr X’s support plan, the Council commissioned one day support a week for Mr X at a private provider (the Provider). Mr X decided to stop accessing support through adult social care in June 2022. Therefore, any provision set out in his support place stopped. That was Mr X’s choice. If Mr X wants the Council to arrange support for him, he would need to ask it for a further adult social care assessment.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman