Devon County Council (21 002 753)
Category : Adult care services > Direct payments
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 10 Aug 2021
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s failure to raise Mr Y’s personal assistant’s wages. There is insufficient evidence of fault to justify our involvement.
The complaint
- Mr Y receives direct payments for his care and says the Council has refused to offer his personal assistant a pay rise.
- Mr Y also says the Council refused to change his social worker until August 2021.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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 there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A (6))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by Mr Y and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mr Y has said his personal assistant needs a pay rise as they have not received one for years.
- The Council has said it pays at least £13.60 per hour and there has been an increase due to annual inflation.
- The direct payment for Mr Y’s personal assistant’s pay is above the National Living Wage and enough to cover administration. There is no automatic pay rise given to a personal assistant and the rate Mr Y pays his assistant must be in line with Mr Y’s needs and available funding.
- If Mr Y thinks his needs have changed then he should ask the Council to carry out an assessment to determine whether his direct payments are still enough for the care and support he needs.
- On Mr Y’s complaint about the Council refusing to change the social worker until August 2021, it has said this particular social worker will not work directly with
Mr Y. The Council is entitled to allocate its staff resources as it sees fit, and does not have to agree to people’s requests.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr Y’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault to justify our involvement.
Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman