Summary: There is no evidence of fault by the Council. It was not a social worker’s role to help Mr X find a job.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains his allocated social worker is not helping him to find a job.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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

3. I have:

• considered the complaint submitted by Mr X
• considered information the Council provided to this office, including a copy of its final complaint response to Mr X;
• made enquiries of the Council and considered the responses;
• considered the law;
• offered Mr X and the Council an opportunity to comment on a draft of this document, and considered the comments made.

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What I found

The law

4. Sections 9 and 10 of the Care Act 2014 (the law) say councils must assess the needs of an adult who appears to need care and support. 
5. Where the council decides someone has eligible needs, it must produce a care and support plan explaining how to meet them. 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 is available locally.

Background

6. Mr X is in his forties and has learning difficulties. He says his allocated social worker is not helping him to find a job. He says he feels stressed and would like a different social worker.
7. The Council completed an assessment of Mr X’s needs in October 2022. This showed Mr X had some needs that he needed support with. This included support with tasks in the home, doing shopping lists, help with budgeting and managing letters/emails and support with accessing part-time work.
8. The Council completed a care plan to show how these needs would be met. The care plan did not include the support that Mr X needed to find a job. The Council says this was a mistake and it should have been included.
9. Mr X chose a direct payment so he could employ a personal assistant to support him. The personal assistant was supplied by an agency. The agency says the personal assistant supported Mr X with job applications.
10. Mr X also received support to find a job from the job centre.
11. Mr X believes his social worker should have done more to help him find a job.
12. The Council says as Mr X’s needs are met by his personal assistant there is no ongoing role for a social worker. The social worker’s involvement ended in April 2023. It says social workers do not provide ongoing support.
13. The Council says Mr X is now working part-time.

Analysis

14. The Council accepts Mr X’s support plan should have included support to find work. I do not find this caused Mr X any difficulty because he did receive support to find work.
15. A social worker’s role is to assess a person’s needs, complete a care plan, and make sure an agency or personal assistant is found to provide the support set out in the care plan.
16. When this is done, a social worker’s role ends. Social workers do not provide people with ongoing support. So, Mr X’s social worker was not wrong to end her involvement once Mr X had a personal assistant in place.
17. There is no evidence to show fault by the Council in this complaint.

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Final decision

18. There is no evidence of fault causing injustice in this complaint. It was not Mr X’s social worker’s role to help him find a job.
19. It is on this basis; the complaint will be closed.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman