London Borough of Bexley (25 009 006)
Category : Adult care services > Assessment and care plan
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 10 Dec 2025
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s wording in an adult social care document. The Council has apologised to the complainant for her upset and made some changes. There is not enough injustice to justify an Ombudsman investigation.
The complaint
- Ms B says the Council does not properly understand her relative, Mr C, and a document it produced does not accurately reflect his behaviours. Following Ms B’s complaint, the Council changed some of the document, but one item remains that Ms B disagrees with. Ms B finds this upsetting and wants it changed as there is no evidence to substantiate it.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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 any fault has not caused enough injustice to the person who complained to justify our involvement.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- We do not investigate all complaints we receive. In deciding whether to investigate we need to consider various tests. These include the alleged injustice to the person complaining. We only investigate the most serious complaints.
- I appreciate Ms B finds the Council’s wording upsetting, but this is not significant enough to justify an Ombudsman investigation. The Council has apologised to Ms B for her upset and made changes it felt necessary. I have asked the Council to look again at the piece of wording Ms B remains unhappy with.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Ms B’s complaint because there is not enough injustice to justify an Ombudsman investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman