Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about missing documents to decide the funding of adult social care. We cannot know if there is a financial injustice until the Council completes the financial assessment. To enable that, the complainant would need to provide the information again. Although that is frustrating and annoying for the complainant, it is not a significant injustice to justify an Ombudsman investigation. There is no worthwhile outcome from an Ombudsman investigation at this stage.

The complaint

1. Ms B says the Council lost documents which she hand-delivered and it took forever dealing with her complaint. Ms B says her relative, Ms C, died without receiving any help from the Council with the funding of her adult social care because of these delays.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate 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 or continue an investigation if we decide:

• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or
• there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.

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

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

5. When the Council becomes aware of someone in its area that needs care support, it must complete an assessment of what care the person needs and how those needs will be met. The Council must also complete a financial assessment to decide whether the person can fund their own care needs or whether the Council must provide financial assistance for their care.
6. We recognise Ms B says she provided the Council with all the information it needed to complete the financial assessment, including providing it in person at the council offices. The Council says it has not received the information and so cannot complete the financial assessment.
7. For whatever reason the information is not available to the Council officers. The Ombudsman cannot find out if there is a financial injustice until the Council completes the financial assessment to decide what, if anything, the Council would fund toward Ms C’s care support.
8. To enable the Council to complete the assessment, Ms B will need to provide the required information. We recognise this causes Ms B annoyance and frustration but there is no worthwhile outcome from an Ombudsman investigation at this stage until we know the outcome of the financial assessment. Ms B’s frustration and annoyance would not in itself justify an Ombudsman investigation.
9. Once the Council completes the financial assessment, if Ms B remains dissatisfied, she can make a new complaint about the Council’s decision. Any complaints about the assessment process such as delay, and lost documents can then be considered.
10. M B is also unhappy with the way the Council dealt with her complaint. But it is not a good use of public resources to look at the Council’s complaints handling if we are not going to look at the substantive issue complained about. We will not therefore investigate this issue separately.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Ms B’s complaint because there is no worthwhile outcome at this stage. Ms B’s frustration and annoyance at missing information would not justify an investigation. The Council needs the information to progress its assessment, and although Ms B says she has already provided it if she wants the Council to decide on whether to fund any of Ms C’s care then Ms B will need to provide the information again.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman