Summary: Mrs X complains on behalf of her late father, Mr Y, about the process the Council followed to decide to withdraw reablement in December 2024. Mrs X also complains about the Council’s decision of early March 2025 not to provide reablement. Mrs X also says the Council failed to respond to her complaint. Mrs X says this caused both her and Mr Y distress. We have found fault in the Councils failure to respond to Mrs X’s April complaint. We do not recommend any remedy.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains on behalf of her late father, Mr Y, about the process the Council followed to decide to withdraw reablement in December 2024. Mrs X also complains about the Council’s decision of early March 2025 not to provide reablement. Mrs X also says the Council failed to respond to her complaint.
2. Mrs X says this caused both her and Mr Y distress.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. We use the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. If there has been fault, we consider whether it has caused injustice (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended).
4. 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(1), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered evidence provided by Mrs X and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
6. Mrs X and the Council were invited to comment on my draft decision. I have considered any comments before making a final decision.

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What I found

7. In 2023, NHS England produced the guidance document ‘Intermediate care framework for rehabilitation, reablement and recovery following hospital discharge’ (the intermediate care guidance). This is a guidance document for health and social care providers.
8. The terms ‘reablement’, ‘rehabilitation’ and ‘intermediate care’ are often used interchangeably. These terms relate to provision of health or social care services (or a combination of both) for a limited time (not usually longer than six weeks). These services are usually provided to a person in their own home or in a short-term residential placement.
9. Intermediate care services are intended to support a person to regain confidence to perform activities of daily living (such as personal care, preparing food and cleaning) following a hospital admission. In some cases, a person may need a programme of structured physical therapy support to help them recover mobility and physical function after a fall or other injury.
10. Regulations require intermediate care and reablement to be provided without charge for up to six weeks. Councils may charge where services are provided beyond the first six weeks but should consider continuing providing them without charge because of the preventive benefits. (Regulation 4, Care and Support (Preventing Needs for Care and Support) Regulations 2014)
11. Care Act 2014
12. Sections 9 and 10 of the Care Act 2014 require councils to carry out an assessment of any adult who appears to need care and support. They must assess anyone, regardless of their finances or whether the council thinks they have eligible needs. The assessment must be of the adult’s needs and how they impact on their wellbeing and the outcomes they want to achieve. It must involve the individual and where appropriate their carer or any other person they might want to be involved.
13. An assessment should be carried out over an appropriate and reasonable timescale taking into account the urgency of needs and a consideration of any fluctuation in those needs. Councils should let the individual know of the proposed timescale for when their assessment will be conducted and keep the person informed throughout the assessment process.

The Councils’ complaint procedure

14. The Council’s complaint procedure says complaints at stage one will be responded to within 20 working days. If complainants remain unhappy and raise a further complaint a decision will be made as to whether to reply again at stage one or the complaint move to stage two.
15. If a further response is required, this will be issued within 10 working days.
16. If the complaint is progressed to stage two this would be responded to within 25 working days which could be extended to 65 working days for complex cases.
17. If the complainant remained unhappy at that point the complaint can be referred to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.

What happened

18. Mr Y was admitted to hospital in early November 2024 and discharged around mid-November 2024.
19. The Council completed a Reablement and Care plan with Mr Y in mid-November 2024 which stated his aims were to try to regain mobility and gain confidence after many falls.
20. The Council completed a Care Act assessment in late November 2024.
21. The Council kept Mr Y’s care under review and in mid-December 2024 consulted the Occupational Therapist (OT) working with Mr Y about ongoing care. The Council’s notes record the OT said Mr Y got tired very quickly and the OT did not recommend increasing the support. The notes record the OT had concerns for Mr Y’s wife due to the amount of support she was providing for Mr Y. The notes say the Council would discuss with the family about transferring Mr Y to a longer-term agency to carry out his care.
22. The Council visited Mr Y and his family in mid-December 2024 and explained that Mr Y’s reablement would not be completed in the timeframe discussed. The Council asked Mr Y’s family if they would like to arrange Mr Y’s long-term care privately or if it could help with sourcing. The notes record the family said they would have to cancel the care due to funding. The Council’s notes say it discussed that it could complete an assessment to decide what/if any contributions the family would need to make towards Mr Y’s care, but the family declined this.
23. Mrs X raised a complaint in early January 2025 about issues with carers, the Council’s failure to complete a reablement plan and the process the Council followed to cancel the reablement after four weeks.
24. The Council responded to Mrs X’s complaint in late January 2025 and addressed the issues Mrs X had raised about the carers. The Council said it had assessed Mr Y as needing long term care which would be chargeable, and the family decided to stop this.
25. Mr Y was admitted to hospital in early February 2025.
26. Mrs X raised a further complaint in late February 2025. This said she was unhappy the Council stopped reablement after four weeks as it had judged Mr Y was not meeting his plan, but the family had not received the plan.
27. The Council completed a new reablement and care plan in early March 2025. This listed Mr Y’s aims as progressing to standing into the frame.
28. The Council had a meeting with Mr Y and his family in early March about reablement and explained funding could be in place for this but only if there is scope for reablement. The Council contacted the physiotherapist working with Mr Y and discussed his needs. The notes record the physiotherapist said although improvements had been made, further improvement would take a long time. The physiotherapist said these improvements would likely not be in the reablement timeframe. The notes say the physiotherapist said Mr Y would need long term care. The Council then decided to continue with reablement for a short time.
29. The Council issued a response to Mrs X’s February 2025 complaint in mid-March 2025. This said it had created a short-term plan with Mr Y and it had taken on board Mrs X’s comments and would update the information given about reablement going forward.
30. Mr Y was admitted to hospital again in mid-March 2025 and the Council stopped reablement.
31. Mrs X raised a further complaint with the Council in April 2025 and said the Council had failed to assess Mr Y correctly to remove the reablement in December 2024. She also said the Council decided to stop and then reintroduce the reablement in March 2025.

Analysis

Reablement, Rehabilitation and Intermediate Care

32. Mrs X says the Council did not provide the family with a plan for reablement when Mr Y returned from hospital and that he was not assessed against this plan in order to decide whether reablement should continue.
33. The Council has provided copies of the reablement plans it created with Mr Y, and these contain details of the aims he wished to complete.
34. While the Council did not provide reablement for the full six weeks allowed. It did seek advice from professionals involved in Mr Y’s care before it decided that it would be unlikely he would achieve goals within the reablement timeframe.
35. I understand Mrs X says Mr Y had been improving and getting stronger and I appreciate why she is unhappy that the decision was made to remove reablement. However, the Council made the decision alongside professionals involved in Mr Y’s care. I cannot say there was fault in the way in which the Council reached this decision and therefore I cannot question the decision.

Complaint handling

36. Mrs X says the Council failed to respond to her complaints.
37. The Council responded to Mrs X’s complaint within the timescales in its policy for the January and February 2025 complaints. However, I have not been able to see the Council responded to Mrs X’s complaint of April 2025. This is fault.
38. Mrs X has however been able to bring the complaint to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman to be investigated and as such she has not suffered an injustice.

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Decision

39. I find fault causing no injustice.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman