Summary: We will not investigate this complaint by Mr Y about the Council’s assessment of his late mother, Mrs X’s care needs, its response to Mr Y’s challenge to this, and his complaint on Mrs X's behalf. We cannot remedy any injustice to Mrs X, and there is not enough evidence of remaining injustice to Mr Y to warrant ourfurther involvement.

The complaint

1. Mr Y complains the Council’s assessment of his late mother, Mrs X’s care needs was inadequate. He says the Council’s charging assessment was not right, and it failed to answer his questions, meaning an appeal only took place after Mrs X’s death and he was forced to provide more care himself. He says the Council also failed to deal properly with his complaint.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We may investigate a complaint on behalf of someone who has died or who cannot authorise someone to act for them. The complaint may be made by:

• their personal representative (if they have one), or
• someone we consider to be suitable. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26A(2) and 34C(2))
   

3. People may complain to us about injustice caused by:
• ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’ by a public organisation we could investigate; or
• the actions of an organisation in connection with privately arranged adult social care.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 26A(1) or section 34C(1)(a)).

4. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), or section 34B(8)).
5. We will not normally investigate complaint handling if we are not investigating the rest of the complaint. This is because there is not usually enough injustice to justify us doing so. We collect information about particularly poor complaint handling practice and report this back to organisations. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), or section 34B(8)).

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
7. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

8. It is not possible to provide any remedy for any injustice caused to the late Mrs X.
9. While the Council may not have answered Mr Y’s questions about charging, it did provide him with a right of appeal promptly to challenge the assessed contribution that he could have used earlier. I note the Council has confirmed an appeal took place and that it repaid him the sum it then owed. And it was not the Council’s decision to withhold the care it had assessed Mrs X needed. Investigation would therefore be unlikely to find sufficient remaining injustice to Mr Y from any fault in assessment or complaint handling to warrant our further involvement.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mr Y’s complaint on behalf of Mrs X because we cannot remedy any injustice to Mrs X and there is not enough evidence of remaining injustice to Mr X to warrant investigation by us.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman