Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council not completing her care assessment properly as it failed to identify her care needs and that the Council failed to provide her with a copy of the care assessment. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains the Council has not completed her care assessment properly as it has failed to identify her care needs. She also complains the Council never provided her with a copy of the care assessment.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Ombudsman investigates complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. 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 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

3. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Records showed the Council first visited Ms X to start the care assessment in July 2022. Between August and October 2022, the social worker attempted to complete the care assessment. In October 2022, Ms X told the Council she would not work with the social worker and refused to discuss the assessment with him. The Council offered Ms X a choice of pursing the partially completed assessment, or for a new social worker to be allocated to start the assessment afresh.
6. Between October and December 2022, the Council chased Ms X for her response on how she wanted to proceed. Ms X told the Council in December 2022 she wanted it to allocate her a female social worker.
7. The Council allocated the new female social worker in January 2023. The social worker visited Ms X in January and February 2023 to complete the assessment.
8. The care assessment completed by the Council identified Ms X had eligible needs, but no support plan had yet been completed to outline what support the Council would provide to meet these eligible needs.
9. In response to our enquiries, the Council confirmed it was struggling to identify the support needed due to Ms X unwillingness to discuss her support needs. The Council said it had discussed potential support it could put in place, such as outreach and enablement services and support workers. However, Ms X declined all these options. The Council also confirmed that while Ms X had indicated she was unhappy with the outcome of the assessment, she has not provided any further information on what she disagrees with. This has prevented the Council from progressing to the support planning stage.
10. An investigation is not justified as there is insufficient evidence of fault. This is because while the Council had identified Ms X has eligible support needs, it has been unable from progressing to the care planning stage due to Ms X’s unwillingness to engage with the process. This is outside the Council’s control and so we are unlikely to find fault with the Council.
11. The Council has confirmed it will attempt to visit Ms X to discuss these matters further and to progress the support planning. It is open to Ms X to work with the Council.
12. Regarding Ms X’s complaint the Council did not provide a copy of the care assessment, an investigation is not justified as there is insufficient evidence of fault. This is because the records showed the Council sent Ms X a copy of the assessment in May 2023. The records also showed Ms X responded to the social worker to confirm it may take her some time to get the assessment back as she was focused on supporting a family member. This suggests Ms X had received the assessment.

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Final decision

13. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman