Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s funding of his mother-in-law’s care and the care provider’s failure to respond to his correspondence. This is because the Council has provided a suitable remedy for the complaint.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mr X, complains the Council underfunded his mother-in-law’s care between 2017 and 2019. As a result the family had to pay more than £9,000 in top-up fees to the care provider. He complains the care provider failed to respond to his correspondence or assist with the refund and did not properly deal with his complaint.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we are satisfied with the actions a council has taken or proposes to take. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(7), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I reviewed the information provided by Mr X, shared my draft decision with him and considered his comments.

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What I found

4. Mr X’s mother-in-law, Mrs Y, has been in residential care commissioned by the Council since 2015. In 2017 her care needs increased but the Council did not carry out a new assessment and continued to fund only the basic level of care she needed. This meant her family had to meet the shortfall via a monthly third party top-up payment.
5. In 2019 Mrs Y’s social worker noticed the Council’s error and informed Mr X. Mr X raised the matter with the Council and the care provider and while the Council acknowledged its error and agreed to reimburse the family the care provider did not respond to his correspondence or phone calls and maintained the family had not overpaid and were not due a refund.
6. The Council has now issued Mr X a refund for the overpayment and agreed to pay more than £250 in interest and a further £300 for his time and trouble. But Mr X remains unhappy with the care provider’s handling of the matter and wants it to acknowledge its failures, improve its practices and apologise.
7. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. As the body commissioning Mrs Y’s care the Council is responsible not only for its own actions but also for those of the care provider it commissioned to care for Mrs Y on its behalf.
8. The Council acknowledges it failed to properly assess Mrs Y’s care needs or to increase its funding for her care as required and it has provided a suitable remedy for this. While Mr X would also like the care provider to acknowledge failures in the way it handled the matter this is not an outcome we can achieve.

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Final decision

9. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because the Council has provided a suitable remedy for the complaint.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman