Manchester City Council (20 010 109)
Category : Adult care services > Charging
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 11 Mar 2021
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about his mother Mrs X paying a significant top-up payment for her nursing home placement since 2017. The complaint lies outside our jurisdiction because it is late and there are no good grounds to exercise discretion to consider it now.
The complaint
- The complainant, whom I shall call Mr X, complains about his mother, Mrs X, needing to pay a significant top-up towards the cost of her nursing home placement since 2017.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
- We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered the information and documents Mr X provided. I sent Mr X a draft of my decision and considered his comments on it.
What I found
- Mr X complains on behalf of his mother, Mrs X. He is her attorney for property and financial affairs.
- Mrs X moved to an EMI nursing home placement in early 2017 funded by the Council under section 117 aftercare, funded nursing care and a top-up paid by Mrs X. The placement was chosen by Mr X and was outside the Council’s area. Mr X complains about his mother needing to make top-up payments towards the cost of her nursing home placement, totalling £77,000 to date.
- Mr X first complained about this matter in late 2017 and received a final response to his complaint in April 2018. This final response signposted him to the Ombudsman, should he remain dissatisfied.
Final decision
- We will not investigate this complaint. The complaint lies outside our jurisdiction because it is late. The law says a complaint should be made to us within 12 months of a person first becoming aware of the matter. Mr X has clearly been aware of this matter since Mrs X moved to the nursing home in early 2017, and he was signposted to the Ombudsman in the final complaint response in April 2018. There are no good grounds to exercise discretion to consider this very late complaint now.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman