Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s administration of his mother Mrs X’s financial or care assessments. There is not sufficient personal injustice caused to Mr X or Mrs X by the matters to warrant us investigating. An investigation cannot achieve the outcome Mr X wants of the Council providing telephone call transcripts. We will not investigate a council’s complaint process where we are not investigating the core issue giving rise to the complaint.

The complaint

1. Mrs X is Mr X’s mother. Mrs X lives in a care home, a placement commissioned by the Council. Mr X complains the Council:
1. incorrectly assumed Mrs X had sufficient money to fund the placement;
2. failed to keep him informed and include him in Mrs X’s assessments;
3. refused to transcribe telephone calls into writing;
4. failed to fully investigate his complaints.
2. Mr X says the matters have caused him stress, anxiety, sleepless nights, and a lack of trust in social services. He wants compensation and for the Council to be held to account for their actions. He also wants the Council to improve its customer service, to record and keep all telephone calls for 2 years and send transcripts to service users.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Ombudsman investigates 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 may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide:

• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained; or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement; or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by Mr X, and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. The Council accepts it should not have made assumptions about Mrs X’s finances when she moved to her current care placement, and that officers should have involved Mr X in Mrs X’s subsequent assessment processes. But there is no reported ongoing injustice to Mrs X or Mr X stemming from these acknowledged faults in the assessments. I recognise Mr X says these matters caused him distress at the time, and further mistrust in the Council. That is unfortunate, but it is not a sufficient personal injustice which warrants us investigating here.
6. Mr X says the Council has refused to provide to him written transcriptions of his telephone calls with officers. He considers the Council should keep records of calls and provide transcripts to people who want them. We could not achieve that outcome for Mr X. We could not order the Council to provide the written records of calls Mr X wishes to see. It is for councils to determine how to use their limited staff time and resources.
7. Mr X says the Council has failed to fully investigate his complaints. We will not investigate councils’ internal complaints processes in isolation where we are not investigating the core issues which gave rise to the complaint. It is not a good use of our resources, received from public funds, for us to do so. That limitation applies here so we will not pursue this part of the complaint.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because:
• there is not sufficient personal injustice caused to him or to Mrs X by the Council’s errors in dealing with her assessments to warrant us investigating;
• there is no different outcome an investigation would achieve;
• we will not investigate a council’s complaint process where we are not investigating the core issue giving rise to the complaint.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman