Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the actions of a social worker when Mr X was approaching discharge from hospital. There is insufficient evidence of fault to justify investigation.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained about the actions of a social worker when he was approaching discharge from hospital. He said they wrote a misleading report about him for consideration by a tribunal, and that they did not arrange an appointment between Mr X and a housing officer.
2. Mr X said this caused him distress and street homelessness for one month. He said this brought expenses of nearly £1,800. Mr X wanted acknowledgement of fault, apologies and compensation for the costs of funding himself while street homeless and for the distress.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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))

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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. Mr X’s complaint is about a social worker who supported him in the lead up to his discharge from hospital. He complains the social worker was supposed to arrange an appointment between Mr X and housing officers but did not.
7. The social worker made a ‘duty to refer’ referral to the Council’s housing team due to Mr X’s impending homelessness. The social worker also made several attempts to follow up that referral. There is insufficient evidence of fault in the social worker’s actions to justify further investigation of this matter.
8. On receiving the referral, it would have been the duty of the Council’s housing team to make contact with Mr X to assess him and provide support in line with any housing duties it owed Mr X. We could not say that any alleged inaction by the social worker was the cause of Mr X’s homelessness. It is open to Mr X to complain about the actions of the housing team should he wish to do so.
9. Mr X’s complaint is also about the content of a report the social worker submitted to a tribunal. Mr X asked the social worker to make several changes, and says the social worker did so. There is insufficient evidence the social worker’s actions amounted to fault, to justify investigating this further. The outcome of the tribunal was in Mr X’s favour and so in any event, any errors in the report did not cause Mr X an injustice.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault to justify investigating the matter further.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman