Summary: There was no fault by the Council because it has carried out a re-assessment of Mr Y’s social care needs and produced an updated care and support plan. It has offered to correct the assessment if Ms X provides details of inaccuracies. This is in line with our expectations.

The complaint

1. Ms X complained the Council:
1. Completed a social care assessment that does not represent her son Mr Y’s needs and contains inaccurate information
2. Did not respond to her request to escalate the complaint
3. Failed to review her son Mr Y’s care and support plan for more than eight years and removed funding for respite care from Mr Y’s care and support plan before 2020.
2. Ms X said this caused avoidable distress and a loss of opportunity to have a break from the caring role.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. 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 s34H(1), as amended)
4. 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)
5. It is our decision whether to start, and when to end an investigation into something the law allows us to investigate. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 24A(6) and 34B(8), as amended)
6. Our view is that the restriction on investigating late complaints does not apply where the person affected does not have mental capacity to complain. However, we may decide not to investigate a historic complaint. Our Guidance on Jurisdiction explains historical allegations are where so much time has elapsed since the fault complained of occurred, that an investigation is likely to be impended by the passage of time. We consider each case individually, and we may decide that some or all of a complaint is not practicable to investigate. If a complaint involves matters which took place over several years, we may restrict the timescale if we are not confident there is a realistic prospect of reaching a sound, fair and meaningful conclusion.
7. We take into account:
• Evidence: the older the events are, the more difficult it is to establish facts with reasonable confidence. Even if some evidence is available, we need to be careful it is reliable and provides a full picture.
• Context: Sometimes guidance and standards have changed making it more difficult to reach a firm and fair conclusion about fault.
• Remedy: It may not be possible to achieve an appropriate remedy due to the difficulty establishing causality given the length of time already passed and the changes in the situation of the parties.

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What I have and have not investigated

8. I did not investigate complaint (c) because is historical.

Evidence: The Council said in its complaint response that the most recent activity on the case before 2024 was a review in 2019. There is therefore a lack of records on Mr Y’s case between 2020 and 2024.

Context: The law changed in April 2015 when the Care Act came into force. And there were easements in force (relaxation of legal duties) during the COVID-19 period. The change in legal framework makes it difficult to reach a robust view on fault

Remedy: It is difficult to work out whether the outcome of annual reviews would have resulted in a difference in the Council’s provision of care and support to Mr X. The parties’ situations and Ms X’s ability/willingness to provide unpaid care may have changed over time and there are no contemporaneous records.

9. Taking all the factors set out in the last paragraph into account, I do not consider it practical to investigate complaint (c). I would not be able to reach a robust conclusion.

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How I considered this complaint

10. I considered evidence provided by Ms X and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
11. Ms X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments before making a final decision.

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What I found

Relevant law and guidance

12. A council must carry out an assessment for any adult with an appearance of need for care and support. 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 also involve the individual and where appropriate their carer or any other person they might want involved. (Care Act 2014, section 9)
13. A council should review a care and support plan at least every year (Care and Support Statutory Guidance, Paragraph 13.32)
14. A council must carry out a carer’s assessment where it appears a carer may have needs for support. The assessment must include an assessment of the carer’s ability and willingness to continue in the caring role, the outcomes the carer wishes to achieve in daily life and whether support could contribute to achieving those outcomes (Care Act 2014, section 10)
15. If a council decides a person is eligible for care, it should prepare a care and support plan which specifies the needs identified in the assessment, says whether and to what extent the needs meet the eligibility criteria and specifies the needs the council is going to meet and how this will be done. The council should give a copy of the care and support plan to the person. (Care Act 2014, sections 24 and 25)

What happened

16. Mr Y has learning disabilities and lives at home with his parents. He is eligible for care and support and has been receiving funding for day services for several years.
17. An officer carried out a social care assessment for Mr Y in 2024. The outcome was he remained eligible for care and support. The assessment said Ms X was willing to continue providing some care and support and set out the specific things she was helping Mr Y with. It said that she had been offered a carer’s assessment, but she had declined this.
18. The Council produced an updated care and support plan for Mr Y. There was no change to the funding.
19. In December 2024, Ms X complained to the Council about the failure to review Mr Y’s care and support plan for several years. The Council responded in January 2025 saying:
• It had completed a holistic review of Mr Y’s care and support recently
• Mr Y’s direct payment continued which enabled him to access day services
• It was sorry information was incorrect; could she provide details so the assessment could be corrected
• The member of staff who completed the review provided Ms X with leaflets about the carer’s support service and about how to apply for a carer’s assessment.
20. Ms X told us she had tried to escalate her complaint with the Council, but it had not replied to her. She has not provided any evidence of her written escalation. The Council told us it its complaints team had not had any further contact from Ms X after it sent her its complaint response.

Findings

Completed a social care assessment that does not represent Mr Y’s needs and contains inaccurate information

21. The Council’s social care assessment reflects Mr Y’s needs based on the information available and provided by Ms X. The Council has offered to correct inaccuracies and reconsider matters if Ms X provides further details. This is in line with our expectations and there is no fault.

Did not respond to her request to escalate the complaint

22. The Council says it has not received any information from Ms X following its complaint response. Ms X has not given us a copy of her escalation email or letter to the Council. There is no evidence of fault by the Council.

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Decision

23. I find no fault.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman