Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about the Council’s care review meeting and report, and it not replying to her complaint. An investigation by us would not reach a different outcome. We also cannot achieve the complaint outcome Miss X wants. We do not investigate council complaint-handling where we are not investigating the core issues which caused the complaint.

The complaint

1. Miss X lives in a care home paid for by the Council. She complains the Council:
1. did not listen to her at a review meeting about her care;
2. has told lies about her and her parents in the review;
3. has not replied to her complaints.
2. Miss X wants the Council to:
• put right the lies about her and her parents;
• listen to what she wants from her care and work with her;
• stop the care staff and her social worker controlling her at the home;
• give her a different social worker.

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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:

• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome; or
• there is another body better placed to consider a complaint; or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.

(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 from Miss X and the Council, and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Miss X does not agree with what the Council wrote about her and her parents in a recent review of her care. She thinks the Council did not listen to her views. The Council says the review recorded the comments made in the meeting.
6. We cannot tell councils to remove or change a care file. Miss X can tell the Council what she thinks is wrong in the care review, including any incorrect things about what she or her parents said or did. The Council would put her comments in her file along with the care review. If Miss X wants the review changed, she may contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) to ask it to decide if the Council should change what is in the review. The ICO is the body better placed to deal with that request because it has powers to tell the Council to change its file, powers we do not have. These are the actions Miss X may take to change her care file. An investigation by us would not get a different outcome on this complaint so we will not investigate it.
7. We note Miss X may not want to stay where she lives because she says the staff and her social worker control her there. The Court of Protection (CoP) has decided where she should live. That court’s decision is not one the Council or our complaints process can change so we could not investigate it. If Miss X is not happy with her care at the home and wants to move out, she would need to go back to the CoP and ask it to change its decision. We told Miss X this in our decision on an earlier complaint she made about the care home. Miss X may wish to get independent legal advice if she wants to go back to the CoP.
8. One of the outcomes from her complaint Miss X wants is the Council to give her a different social worker. It is for the Council to decide which officers do which jobs. We cannot order the Council to change Miss X’s social worker. We cannot achieve this outcome for her so we will not investigate.
9. Miss X complains the Council did not reply to her complaint. The Council received another complaint about the care review, made for Miss X by her father, which it replied to. That complaint raised some of the issues Miss X has also complained about. In any event, we do not investigate council complaint-handling on its own when we are not investigating the core issues which led to someone making their complaint. It is not a good use of our resources to do so. That restriction applies here so we will not investigate this part of the complaint.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because:
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome; and
• we cannot achieve the outcomes Miss X seeks;
• we do not investigate councils’ complaint-handling where we are not investigating the key issues which caused the complaint.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman