South Gloucestershire Council (25 007 565)

Statement Upheld Charging 01-Jun-2026

Summary: Mrs D complains about the Council’s delays in reviewing her daughter’s care plan, cutting her number of hours of care and support, not increasing a direct payment and delaying a referral for specialist counselling. We uphold the complaint because of some contradictory record keeping and not sending Mrs D some records, causing some uncertainty. The Council has agreed to our recommendations.

Birmingham City Council (25 005 975)

Statement Upheld Charging 28-May-2026

Summary: Mrs X complained the Council failed to offer her mother-in-law a choice of residential care home accommodation and wrongly charged her a top up fee. We found fault by the Council in not offering an alternative placement that did not require a top up fee. We consider the Council’s offer to reimburse some of the top up fees and a payment for time and trouble with an apology and service improvement provides a suitable remedy.

Live Long Live Well Ltd (25 004 764)

Statement Upheld Charging 27-May-2026

Summary: Mr X complained, on behalf of his grandmother Mrs Y, that the Care Provider incorrectly charged her for care she did not request or receive. The Care Provider’s actions caused Mrs Y uncertainty, which is an injustice. The Care Provider has agreed to apologise, repay Ms X for care it should have cancelled, and implement service improvements.

London Borough of Hounslow (25 007 112)

Statement Upheld Charging 27-May-2026

Summary: The Council was at fault for overcharging Mr Z for his care and support and for failing to properly consider how much it had overcharged him by. This caused his representative, Ms X, confusion. However, the Council ultimately reimbursed Mr Z more than it had overcharged him by, so the fault did not cause him financial harm. The Council will apologise to Ms X and take action to prevent similar fault in future.

Staffordshire County Council (25 007 222)

Statement Upheld Charging 26-May-2026

Summary: Mr X complained the Council failed to manage his mother, Ms Y’s, finances while she was in a nursing home and did not stop payments from her bank account. He says this distressed him and meant the Council wrongly charged him for Ms Y’s care costs after her death. The Council was at fault. It delayed making a deputyship referral and was late responding to Mr X’s complaint. This caused uncertainty and frustrated Mr X. The Council has agreed to apologise.

Wiltshire Council (25 020 758)

Statement Closed after initial enquiries Charging 25-May-2026

Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the Council’s refusal to reconsider care charges made for a person from 2021 to their death in 2023. There is not enough evidence of fault in the Council’s action in refusing to do so to warrant investigation.

Medway Council (25 009 676)

Statement Upheld Charging 21-May-2026

Summary: Mrs X complained about how the Council handled her husband Mr X’s care costs. We find the Council at fault for not appropriately checking figures and information when calculating how much Mr X should have contributed to his care costs, and for inadequate complaint handling. This caused Mrs X distress in the form of uncertainty, frustration and time and trouble. The Council agreed to apologise, make a symbolic payment and complete a new calculation to remedy the injustice.

Norfolk County Council (25 017 527)

Statement Upheld Charging 20-May-2026

Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of his social care account and poor complaint handling, including the absence of any reasonable adjustments during its complaint investigation. A further investigation is unlikely to achieve anything worthwhile.

Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council (25 023 518)

Statement Closed after initial enquiries Charging 20-May-2026

Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s decision to recover outstanding care charges from Mrs Y’s estate. The complaint is late without good reason to investigate it now. There is also not enough evidence of fault in the Council’s decision to recover the outstanding care charges.

Cornwall Council (25 020 865)

Statement Closed after initial enquiries Charging 19-May-2026

Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about care fees as we cannot achieve the outcome Mrs X seeks which is for the fees to be written off. We will not investigate how the Council dealt with Mrs X’s complaint separately as in isolation I do not consider any injustice arising from this is sufficient to justify our further involvement.