Hampshire County Council (21 016 777)
Category : Adult care services > Charging
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 21 Mar 2022
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint that the Council underfunded his mother’s residential care home placement over a decade ago. The complaint lies outside our jurisdiction because it is late and there are not good grounds to exercise discretion to consider this very late complaint now.
The complaint
- The complainant, whom I shall call Mr X, complains the Council under-funded his mother’s (Mrs X’s) residential care home placement prior to her death 11 years ago.
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 information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mr X complains the Council underfunded Mrs X’s care prior to her death 11 years ago. Mr X says his sister raised this issue via a solicitor following Mrs X’s death. Mr X then pursued the matter following his sister’s death around 9 years ago. He has been unable to resolve the matter despite a decision 3-4 years ago by an independent panel that the Council did not pay the full amount for Mrs X’s residential care home placement.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it lies outside our jurisdiction. 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 for many years. It is reasonable to expect the complaint to have been made much sooner. Due to the passage of time it is very unlikely we would be able to reach a fair and reliable view on the matter now, over a decade later.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman