Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about the Council’s delay in completing carer and Care Act Assessments. There is not enough evidence of fault causing significant injustice to justify our involvement.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains the Council delayed completing a Carer’s assessment and Care Act assessment for her. This has meant she has not received the support she needs personally and to help care for her adult child.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
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
• 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

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. Ms X asked the Council for a carer’s assessment in September 2024, which it completed in October 2024. The Council then shared a copy of the carer’s assessment with Ms X at the beginning of January 2025. The Council has told us there was extensive correspondence between it and Ms X, and then her legal representatives about the content of the carer’s assessment. The Council confirmed the support still available to Ms X as Y’s carer and asked her to discuss arrangements for the support to begin. The Council issued Ms X’s finalised carer’s assessment to her legal representatives on 16 April 2025 and says it has not received any further contact from Ms X to arrange the support it can offer.
7. There appears to have been some delay between the Council completing the carer’s assessment in October 2024 and sharing this with Ms X on 3 January 2025. However, we cannot determine whether this delay has caused significant injustice to Ms X because she does not appear to have taken up the Council’s offer to arrange the support set out in her carer’s assessment. We will not investigate further because of this.
8. Ms X also asked the Council for a Care Act assessment for her own care needs. The Council allocated a Social Worker in May 2025 to complete this assessment with Ms X. The Social Worker contacted Ms X in late May to arrange a time to complete the assessment. The Council says Ms X told the Social Worker she was unavailable to complete her Care Act assessment until August 2025. The Council therefore placed this matter on hold until Ms X was available.
9. As with Ms X’s carer’s assessment, it is not possible to know the impact of any delay in the Council’s progression of her Care Act assessment because it has yet to be completed in accordance with Ms X’s request. It is not possible to determine whether the delay by the Council has caused any avoidable and significant injustice to Ms X, which would justify our intervention.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault causing significant injustice to justify our involvement.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman