Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the Council charging her mother for her care and support. She says the Council told them the placement would be free. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains about the Council charging her mother for her care and support. Mrs X said the Council told them her mother’s placement would be funded by the Council.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate 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 an investigation if we decide:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Mrs X’s mother, Mrs F, was receiving care in a care home as part of her rehabilitation. The Council reviewed Mrs F’s care needs at the end of October 2022. The case notes detailed that Mrs F’s daughters expressed concern about her returning home and that Mrs F herself had some reservations about returning home, though she did not want to consider residential care long term.
6. The social worker discussed the benefits of Mrs F remaining in care, even if it was on a short-term residential placement to see how she gets on and to give her some time to think about her long-term care plan. The case notes also confirmed the social worker had informed Mrs F and her daughters of the financial implications of nursing/residential placement and that the social worker sent Mrs F’s daughters the financial implications of moving into a residential or nursing home fact sheet.
7. Mrs X said the social worker told them the placement would be funded by the Council.
8. The Care Act 2014 provides the legal framework for charging for care and support. It enables a council to decide whether to charge a person when it is arranging to meet their care and support needs, or a carer’s support needs. The charging rules for residential care are set out in the Care and Support (Charging and Assessment of Resources) Regulations 2014 and councils should have regard to the Care and Support Statutory Guidance.
9. When the Council arranges a care home placement, it must follow the regulations when undertaking a financial assessment to decide how much a person must pay towards the cost of their residential care.
10. The financial limit, known as the ‘upper capital limit’, exists for the purposes of the financial assessment. This sets out at what point a person can get council support to meet their eligible needs. People who have over the upper capital limit must pay the full cost of their residential care home fees.
11. As Mrs F had over the upper capital limit, she was responsible for the full cost of her placement.
12. An investigation is not justified as we are not likely to find fault. This because there is evidence the Council provided clear information that the residential placement would be chargeable.
13. In any case, even if we were to find fault with the Council for providing incorrect information, we would not investigate as this would not have caused any significant injustice to Mrs F. This is because the outcome would still be that that Mrs F was responsible for paying for the full cost of her care.
14. In reaching my decision that the alleged fault would not have caused any significant injustice, I have noted Mrs X’s comments that if they had been told the care was chargeable, this would have affected Mrs F’s decision to stay in short term residential care. I accept there is some level of uncertainty on this.
15. However, I note the case records reflect that both Mrs F and her daughters had concerns about her returning home. This suggests it was not likely, on balance, Mrs F would have decided to go home.

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Final decision

16. We will not investigate Mrs F’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman