Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council carrying out a care assessment. There is not enough evidence of fault by the Council to warrant our further involvement.

The complaint

1. Ms X said she had been repeatedly asking for a care needs assessment with an advocate since 2023, but the Council had not carried this out. She said it had instead obliged her repeatedly to go through complaints procedures, and it had become increasingly difficult to follow multiple complaints.

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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:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained.

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

3. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

6. Matters dating from more than 12 months before Ms X approached us in June 2025 are late as she was aware of them more than 12 months before that. We will only consider late matters where a person was unable to complain sooner. Ms X complained to the Council and so could have contacted us sooner about these matters.
7. Since late 2024 the Council has twice offered Ms X a care needs assessment with an advocate. The correspondence I have seen shows she declined an assessment in November 2024 due to a concern about the proposed advocate’s family name. While the Council closed the case after that due to a team change, Ms X had declined an opportunity to be assessed. The Council also confirmed to us in the summer that it had arranged another assessment with an advocate present that was due to happen recently. However, when we asked it for an update, it told us the advocate had failed to attend, and the assessment could not go ahead. It was looking to re-arrange the assessment. Investigation by us would be unlikely to find actions by the Council denied Ms X the opportunity to have her potential care needs assessed.
8. Where we are not investigating the substantive matter of a complaint, it is not a good use of resources to investigate how a council has dealt with a complaint about it.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because:

• There is not enough evidence of fault by the Council in matters since June 2024 to warrant our further involvement;
• Matters before June 2024 are late and there is no good reason to exercise discretion to consider them now;
• It is not a good use of resources to investigate the Council’s complaint handling as we are not investigating the substantive matters of which Ms X complains.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman