Summary: Mrs X complains that the Council failed to comply with the agreed action in the Ombudsman’s final decision for her previous complaint to source a domestic support provider for her. The Council took sufficient action to source a domestic support provider for Mrs X. But the Council is at a fault as it failed to consider if it needed to make reasonable adjustments for Mrs X to complete the paperwork for direct payments. This fault did not cause significant injustice to Mrs X.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains that the Council has failed to comply with the agreed actions in the Ombudsman’s final decision for her previous complaint as it has not provided a new care provider to support her with domestic tasks. Mrs X says that as a result she has had to pay for private support from August 2023 which is causing financial hardship to her.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. If there has been fault which has caused significant injustice, or that could cause injustice to others in the future we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
3. If there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
4. When considering complaints we make findings based on the balance of probabilities. This means that we look at the available relevant evidence and decide what was more likely to have happened.
5. 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

6. I have:

• Considered the complaint and the information from Mrs X;
• Discussed the issues with Mrs X;
• Made enquiries of the Council and considered the information provided.
• Invited Mrs X and the Council to comment on the draft decision. I considered the comments received before making a final decision.

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What I found

Relevant law and guidance

7. 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.
8. 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.
9. The reasonable adjustment duty is set out in the Equality Act 2010 and applies to any body which carries out a public function. It aims to make sure that a disabled person can use a service as close as it is reasonably possible to get to the standard usually offered to non-disabled people. Service providers are under a positive and proactive duty to take steps to remove or prevent obstacles to accessing their service. If the adjustments are reasonable, they must make them.
    

What happened

10. The following is a summary of the key events relevant to my consideration of the complaint. It does not include everything that happened.

Background information

11. The Council assessed Mrs X as being eligible for care and support. Mrs X’s care and support plan sets out the support she requires in a number of areas. This support includes domestic support for cleaning her home and assistance with her laundry and shopping. The care and support plan provided the domestic support should be for six hours per week.
12. Mrs X complained to the Ombudsman that the Council had not provided the domestic support. We found the Council to be at fault as it had not attempted to source another domestic support provider when Mrs X’s provider ended its service in October 2022. As a result, Mrs X did not receive the provision set out in her care plan. The Council agreed to immediately make arrangements to source a new provider for the domestic support set out in Mrs X’s care plan.
13. Mrs X has complained the Council has failed to source a new domestic support provider in line with the agreed action. This investigation considers the action taken by the Council to comply with the agreed action. It does not consider any other matters.

This complaint

14. In summer 2023, Mrs X suggested a domestic support provider. The Council said it would offer direct payments to Mrs X to enable her to employ the provider.
15. The Council wrote to Mrs X to confirm that it would allow Mrs X to use direct payments so she could pay for the provider’s support. The letter also said that an organisation commissioned by the Council to provide support with direct payments would visit Mrs X to explain the process. I shall call this organisation B. The Council’s records show it made a referral to organisation B for Mrs X. Mrs X has said the Council did not provide sufficient information to her about direct payments.
16. Organisation B contacted the Council to say that Mrs X said she could not complete the direct payment paperwork or sign the agreement due to her disability.
17. The Council’s records show that Mrs X and the provider discussed the domestic support required. The provider’s emails to Mrs X show it considered it could not meet her specific requirements. The provider’s email to the Council notes Mrs X would not sign the contract until she was assured that her laundry requirements could be met within the assessed six hours.
18. The Council’s records note that in early August 2023 the provider and organisation B contacted the Council. The record notes Mrs X would not sign any paperwork as she was unhappy with the terms of the direct payment agreement which provided she would be an employer. Mrs X has said she cannot take on the responsibilities of an employer due to her health. Mrs X has also said the Council should have signed the agreement with the provider.
19. The Council sent a factsheet to Mrs X which provided information on prepaid cards as a means of managing direct payments. The Council asked Mrs X to confirm if she would be able to use it.
20. The provider supporting Mrs X’s personal care agreed to support Mrs X with managing her laundry. Its email to the Council noted Mrs X had declined the support as she considered it did not meet her requirements. Mrs X also confirmed with the Council that the support offered would not meet her requirements within the allocated care hours.
21. The Council’s records note that it offered to send an officer to help unpack Mrs X’s boxes which remained following Mrs X move. Mrs X declined the offer and said she would not unpack any further boxes until the Council had dealt with her outstanding laundry.
22. The Council wrote to Mrs X in early December 2023 setting out the options for providing domestic support. The Council offered direct payments but it noted Mrs X did not want to become an employer. The Council also said its care matching team could look for another care provider which the Council could commission as part of Mrs X’s support plan. The Council asked Mrs X to confirm how she wanted to proceed.
23. Mrs X responded in February 2024. Mrs X said that the support organisation told her that it had not been instructed to arrange direct payments. She also said she would not sign any direct payment agreement until she was notified of what was going on. The Council has said Mrs X has not responded to its offer to commission a care provider.

Care and support plan

24. In August 2023, the Council reviewed Mrs X’s care and support plan. The reviewed care and support plan provides six hours of domestic support and 12 hours of one off support to unpack boxes in Mrs X’s property. The care and support plan notes Mrs X’s view that she required a significant increase in support hours. The care and support plan sets out the Council’s assessment that the six hours of domestic support and one off support to unpack boxes were sufficient to meet Mrs X’s needs and its reasons. The care and support plan also notes the Council had agreed to offer Mrs X’s its enhanced direct payment rate.

Analysis

25. On balance, I consider the Council has taken sufficient action to comply with our recommendation to source a new domestic support provider for Mrs X. The Council has provided evidence to show it has taken action to source a new domestic support provider for Mrs X. It has offered direct payments to allow Mrs X to employ her own care provider or personal assistant, offered a prepaid card to manage direct payments, asked Mrs X’s provider of personal care to support her with laundry and offered to directly commission care for Mrs X. The Council has also evidenced it offered assistance with unpacking boxes and included support for that in the care and support plan.
26. Mrs X considers the Council should have signed the agreement with her chosen provider rather than expecting her to sign it. I do not consider this is evidence of fault. Mrs X would have been employing the provider, not the Council, so it was appropriate to ask her to sign the agreement.
27. Mrs X also considers that her domestic support needs cannot be met within the six hours of support allocated to her. The Council has reviewed Mrs X’s care and support plan. The support plan sets out Mrs X’s views about the level of care she considers she needs. So I am satisfied the Council was aware of Mrs X ‘s concerns when reaching its decision on the hours of support required. It also explains in the support plan why it considers Mrs X’s needs can be met with six hours of support and the one off support for unpacking. I am therefore satisfied there is no evidence of fault in how the Council reached its decision that six hours of support was sufficient to meet Mrs X’s needs. So, I do not have grounds to question the merits of its decision.
28. The Council offered to commission a care provider for Mrs X when it wrote to her in December 2023 setting out her options. I have not seen any evidence to show Mrs X accepted the Council’s offer. So I cannot say the Council is at fault for not commissioning a provider. But, as a way forward, the Council may wish to consider making the offer to commission a care provider again to Mrs X.
29. Mrs X considers the Council did not provide sufficient information about direct payments. The Council has said Mrs X was provided with verbal information the advice session with organisation B. It has also confirmed that organisation B also provided information in writing to Mrs X and the Council has also previously signposted her to factsheets on its website. On balance, I consider this demonstrates the Council provided sufficient information to Mrs X about direct payments. In any event, Mrs X did not want to proceed with direct payments as she did not consider she could manage being an employer.
30. Organisation B notified the Council that Mrs X said she could not complete the direct payments paperwork or sign the agreement due to her disability. In response to my draft decision, the Council has said it has provision in place to make reasonable adjustments for service users who may not be able to sign the agreement due to disability. It did not make reasonable adjustments for Mrs X as she was regularly communicating with the Council by email and she had not advised it of any difficulties in signing the paperwork. But organisation B had notified the Council that Mrs X said she could not sign the paperwork so the Council should have explored with Mrs X what reasonable adjustments she required. It should not have assumed she did not require any based on its previous experience. I am mindful the Council suggested Mrs X could sign the agreement with an X but this was some months later. So, on balance, the failure to consider reasonable adjustments for Mrs X to complete and sign the direct payment paperwork in June 2023 is fault.
31. But, I do not consider the failure to consider reasonable adjustments for Mrs X prevented her from proceeding with direct payments. As stated above, Mrs X has clearly said she did not want direct payments as she could not manage being an employer. I also do not considerate is proportionate or necessary to recommend any service improvements. The Council has provision in place to make reasonable adjustments for service users who cannot complete direct payment paperwork.

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Final decision

Fault which did not cause injustice to Mrs X.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman