Summary: Miss X complained about the Council’s delay in carrying out adaptations to meet her son’s needs. We have ended the investigation because the Housing Ombudsman deals with complaints about councils as social landlords and is considering Miss X’s complaint.

The complaint

1. Miss X complained about the Council’s delay in carrying out adaptations to meet her son’s needs. This includes delays in installing fencing and a gate, levelling the garden and repairing a shower. This has left her son without the adaptations he needs and has affected their dignity.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We cannot investigate complaints about the provision or management of social housing by a council acting as a registered social housing provider. (Local Government Act 1974, paragraph 5A schedule 5, as amended)
3. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe:

• the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• there is another body better placed to consider this complaint, (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I have considered the information provided by Miss X and have discussed the complaint with her on the telephone. I have considered some initial information provided by the Council in response to some initial enquiries.
5. I gave Miss X and the Council the opportunity to comment on a draft of this decision and considered the comments I received.

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What I found

6. Miss X is a Council tenant. Miss X’s son, Mr Y, is an adult with learning disabilities. In July 2017 an Occupational Therapist recommended adaptations to Miss X’s property including providing a gate and fencing at the front of the property and levelling the garden at the rear. In October 2018 Miss X complained to the Council about delays in carrying out these works, delays in replacing the shower which Mr Y had pulled off the wall and the Council’s refusal to install a downstairs toilet.
7. The Council responded to Miss X’s complaint through the three stages of its complaints’ procedure. It apologised for the delay in fitting fencing. It proposed a scheme for the back garden and was looking to carry out further adaptations to the shower. It said there was no obvious space in which a toilet downstairs could be installed. Miss X remained unhappy and complained to the Ombudsman. She raised issues regarding the Occupational Therapist not keeping her updated and not properly recording their discussions.
8. As Miss X is a council tenant, a complaint regarding disabled adaptations in a council property is a matter for the Council as a social landlord. The Housing Ombudsman deals with complaints about councils as registered social landlords. Miss X has already complained to the Housing Ombudsman about the delays in carrying out the adaptations.
9. The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) is limited to looking at the Council’s actions in relation to its social care duties. In this case it would be limited to looking at the role of the Occupational Therapist. However, Miss X’s main concerns are not the recommendations made by the Occupational Therapist but the extent to which the Council took the recommendations on board. These are issues for the Housing Ombudsman. Miss X has already complained to it and it is considering her complaint. Miss X has raised minor concerns around communication with the Occupational Therapist but any injustice arising from this is not significant enough to warrant an investigation by the LGSCO.

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Final decision

10. I have discontinued the investigation. The delay in carrying out adaptations is a matter for the Housing Ombudsman not the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman. Any injustice arising from Miss X’s communication with the Occupational Therapist is not significant enough to warrant an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman