Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council withdrawing therapy support. There is not enough evidence of fault in how the Council decided to end the service to justify an Ombudsman investigation.

The complaint

1. Ms B wants the Council to restart therapy it was previously providing her. Ms B says her mental health is declining without this support and has struggled to manage her college course.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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 how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
3. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by the complainant.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. The Ombudsman cannot decide whether Ms B needs therapy and say the Council must provide it, we can only look at how the Council decided the matter.
7. The Council was previously providing Ms B with some therapy. The Council decided this support was no longer suitable as Ms B was not making progress and needed more specialist intervention than its team could offer. The Council explained its decision to Ms B at a review of the therapy support.
8. The Council gradually ended the service and referred Ms B to adult mental health services with her agreement. This service is an NHS service and not within our powers to investigate. If Ms B has any concerns about an NHS service, she needs to pursue that as a separate complaint. The Council has told her to ask her GP to refer her again to mental health services if she wishes to seek support from them.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Ms B’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault to justify an Ombudsman investigation. The Council made its decision on review of the support, with full discussion with Ms B, and it gradually ended the service and referred Ms B to support it thought was more suitable. We could not achieve the outcome of reinstating the therapy support, because we cannot say the Council must provide it.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman