Summary: Ms Y complained on behalf of Mrs X about the time taken by the Council to complete adaptations to Mrs X’s home. We have found the Council at fault for delaying completing adaptations to Mrs X’s property. As a result, Mrs X has lived in her home without adaptations she needed. To remedy the injustice caused the Council agreed to apologise, make a financial payment to Mrs X and Ms Y and look at how it could improve its procedures around communication.

The complaint

1. Ms Y complains on behalf of Mrs X that:
• The Council delayed completing adaptations to Mrs X’s home.
• The Council did not allow Mrs X to receive a Council Tax disability rebate as she did not have adaptations at her home.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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’. If there has been fault which has caused significant injustice, or that could cause injustice to others in the future we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
3. If we are satisfied with an organisation’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. As part of this investigation I considered the information from Ms Y and the Council. I made enquiries with the Council and considered the information received in response. I sent a draft of this decision to Ms Y and the Council and considered comments received in response.

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What I found

Law and guidance

5. Disabled Facilities Grants are provided under the terms of the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996. Councils have a statutory duty to give grants to disabled people for certain adaptations. Before approving a grant, a council must be satisfied the work is necessary, meets the disabled person’s needs, and is reasonable and practicable.
6. Relevant councils must promote ‘wellbeing’ when carrying out care and support functions. Wellbeing includes the suitability of living accommodation. The Care Act 2014 recognises suitable accommodation as one way of meeting care and support needs. Prevention is critical to the Care Act and home adaptation is an example of secondary prevention.
7. The maximum grant payable by a council is £30,000. A council can award other discretionary help if it thinks it is necessary. The council grant amount is subject to a means test. The test does not apply to applications from landlords, or from parents for grants for their disabled children. Regardless of who makes the application, the means test applies to the disabled person (the ‘relevant person’). If the relevant person has a partner, their finances are assessed jointly.
8. In March 2022 the government issued non-statutory guidance “Disabled facilities Grant (DFG) Delivery: Guidance for local authorities in England.
9. This guidance advises councils in England on how they can effectively and efficiently deliver DFG funded adaptations to best serve the needs of local older and disabled people. It brings together and sets out in one place existing policy frameworks, legislative duties and powers, together with recommended best practice, to help councils provide an adaptation service to disabled tenants and residents in their area.
10. The March 2022 guidance identifies five key stages to delivering home adaptations:
• Stage 1: First contact with the service. Councils should ensure the public has access to information and advice about the DFG process.
• Stage 2: First contact to assessment and identification of the relevant works. An occupational therapist (OT) will assess the person’s needs and potential solutions through home adaptations.
• Stage 3: Identification of the relevant works to submission of the formal grant application. The person completes and submits the application form together with designs and costing for the works (where necessary).
• Stage 4: Grant application to grant decision. The Council will check the application and issue a decision letter. If a council refuses a grant, it must explain why.
• Stage 5: Approval of grant to completion of works. The works are arranged and carried out and the necessary quality checks made.
11. A council should decide a grant application as soon as reasonably practicable. In addition, the timescales for moving through the stages will depend on the urgency and complexity of the works required. The guidance gives the following timescales:
• Urgent and simple works – 55 working days
• Non-urgent and simple works – 130 working days
• Urgent and complex works – 130 days
• Non-urgent and complex works – 180 working days
12. Once the work is complete, the council must pay the grant in full within 12 months of the application date.
13. We expect councils to consider whether interim equipment or temporary works should be provided when it will take them a long time to secure a permanent solution.

What happened

14. In September 2019, an occupational therapist visited Mrs X and her husband Mr X to assess them for adaptations. The occupational therapist referred them to the Council’s Home Improvement Agency (HIA).
15. Following a visit from the Council’s HIA the Council recommended turning the garage in the property into a bedroom and bathroom for Mr X. It also made further recommendations for Mrs X which included ramped access, level shower access and access to suitable bedroom facilities.
16. In March 2020, the Council suspended all works due to Covid 19. Ms Y contacted the Council for an update in July 2020.
17. In September 2020, the Council wrote to Mrs X and told her it had started to resume some works from August 2020, however it had a backlog of applications to work through.
18. Between March 2021 and April 2022, the Council took some action on the DFG application and by April 2022 it was ready to send all the paperwork to its contractors.
19. In August 2021, Mr X passed away. The Council said it did not become aware of this until April 2022 during a telephone conversation with Ms X. The Council said it believed Mrs X’s needs were being met at the time on her bed and it was not clear whether another assessment was needed.
20. In May 2022 Mrs X applied for disabled relief for Council Tax. The Council refused to approve this as Mrs X did not have any adaptations.
21. Ms Y complained to the Council in May 2022. Ms Y complained about the delays carrying out the adaptations to Mrs X’s property and the lack of communication from the Council.
22. The Council provided its response to the complaint in June 2022. The Council said:
• It took the decision to halt all adaptations following the Covid 19 restrictions as it did not want families to be in a position where adaptations had only partially been completed. The Council said it did not explain this to Mrs X.
• It recognised there had been times when it did not communicate with Mrs X in line with its expected standards and apologised.
• It would carry out a full assessment of Mrs X as it had been two years since the original assessment. Once it completed this the report and recommendations would be put on high priority. The Council also offered £200 for its poor communication and said it was reviewing its communication and handling of adaptations.
23. The Council completed a new independent living assessment for Mrs X in mid-July 2022. Following this the occupational therapist sent the Council a referral in mid-August 2022 for a DFG. The Council send Mrs X the paperwork to complete an application on the same day.
24. The Council received the signed DFG form back from Mrs X in October 2022 and approved the plans in January 2023. The Council also made an additional request to add a ceiling hoist to the works and sought to obtain a quote for this. It took until May 2023 for the Council to obtain a quote for the ceiling hoist. During this time the Council had to reapply for Building Regulations as this had expired from the previous DFG application.
25. In June 2023, Ms Y complained to the Council about:
• The length of time it was taking to complete adaptations to Mrs X’s property.
• The lack of regular communication from the Council. Ms Y said the family were not kept updated and did not know what was happening.
• The building regulations from the original work lapsed which caused a further delay.
• The complainant applied for council tax relief in May 2022 and the Council refused to award this as Mrs X did not have any adaptations.
26. The Council provided its final response to Ms Y’s complaint in August 2023. The Council said:
• The first DFG application was halted due to Covid 19 as contractors could not carry out any work during the national restrictions. The Council said it had to reassess Mrs X and amend the plan for her needs. As a result, it received a new application in October 2022.
• From reviewing the case files its communication should have been better.
• It should have monitored when Building Regulations expired. However this did not cause delays as the Council was waiting for a quote for a ceiling track hoist to progress the adaptations and received new Building Regulation approval in the meantime.
• It’s Council Tax relief advice was correct. Mrs X did not have disabled adaptations in May 2022 and applied for a DFG in October 2022, therefore she did not qualify for the Council Tax relief.
27. The Council said it would carry out the following:
• Issue an apology for lack of regular communication and updates as this would have made the situation better for Mrs X and Ms Y.
• The Council’s HIA would ensure it monitors Building Regulation end dates and that this is included as part of the process to ensure they remain in date for adaptations.
• The Council’s HIA would review its processes and communication including advising at the outset the aspirational target timelines for major adaptations. The Council said it would also carry out a verbal walk through with the service users of what happens when the work starts.
28. In January 2024 the adaptation works started and were completed around February 2024. The Council said it took the decision to initially split the works between two contractors, however it became apparent that costs were approaching the upper grant limit meaning Mrs X would have to contribute. The Council said as a result, it decided to link all the works together with one contractor as the costs would be lower and they could be carried out altogether. The Council said this approach took longer but believed it resulted in a better outcome for Mrs X.

Analysis

2019 DFG application

29. Mrs X applied for a DFG in October 2019. The evidence provided suggests the Council agreed to carry out adaptations to her property for both her and Mr X. In March 2020, all adaptation works stopped due to the Covid 19 lockdown.
30. Following this Ms Y asked the Council for an update in June 2020. I cannot see that the Council kept the family updated until September 2020 when it said it was resuming some works but there was a large backlog. This was fault.
31. The Council also said in its complaint response that it had taken the decision not to carry out major works projects as it did not want to put families in a position where only partial works were completed due to the situation around the Covid 19 restrictions. The Council did not explain this to Mrs X or Ms Y. This was fault. While the Council could not have progressed the DFG application faster, due to the impact of the Covid 19 pandemic, it could have kept the family better informed about when they could expect to it to progress their application.
32. The Council did recognise its communication fell below its expected standards and apologised. The Council also offered £200 to recognise this. I am satisfied this was appropriate to remedy any injustice caused the Mrs X relating to the 2019 DFG application.

2022 DFG application

33. The Council carried out a reassessment of Mrs X in July 2022 and as a result took a new DFG application for her. I do not consider the Council was at fault for carrying out a reassessment of Mrs X as Mr Y had passed away and the conversion of the garage to a bedroom and bathroom, in the initial DFG application, was for his needs. Therefore the Council needed to satisfy itself that this adaptation would meet Mrs X’s needs.
34. The Council became aware that Mr X had passed away in April 2022. The Council should have, at this point, looked at the DFG application and carried out any reassessment to see if the proposed adaptations were still suitable. Failure to do so was fault. As a result, Mrs X waited a further four months for the Council to carry out a reassessment and this was only done after Ms Y complained to the Council.
35. The Council received Mrs X’s DFG signed grant forms in October 2022, but it has taken until January/February 2024 to complete the works. This was fault. After receiving Mrs X’s signed grant forms it took five months from January 2024 until May 2024 to obtain a quote for a hoist. Following this it was not clear why it has taken a further eight months to complete the adaptations.
36. The guidance referred to in paragraphs 8-10 above states where the work is complex and non-urgent should take no longer than 180 working days to complete all of the stages of the DFG process. Where the work is complex and urgent it should take no longer than 130 working days to complete. Even if the Council had completed the works within 180 days of the of receiving the DFG application, it should have finished the works in late June 2023. I am satisfied there has been substantial delays in completing the adaptations for Mrs X.
37. The Council was also at fault for the way it communicated with Mrs X and Ms Y during this process. The records showed that the Council did not keep the family updated regularly. The Council has recognised this and apologised to Ms Y. The Council also said it would review its communication processes.
38. As I have found fault I need to consider what injustice this caused to Mrs X and Ms Y. As Mrs X needed adaptations she has suffered injustice as she would not have been able to use her home in the way she needed to. Ms Y said that the impact on Mrs X not having the adaptations completed sooner has been significant. Ms Y said she had had to provide Mrs X with bed baths as the space in the garage had not been created for her to take showers. In addition, Mrs X has found it very difficult to access and leave her home as no ramp had been installed for her to be safely wheeled out. This is an injustice to Mrs X.
39. Ms Y has also spent time providing extra care and support to Mrs X as the adaptations were not in place. This is an injustice to Ms Y.

Council Tax rebate

40. When Mrs X applied for Council Tax relief for disabled persons, in May 2022, she did not have any adaptations at her home so the Council refused her request for this. I have not found the Council at fault for the way it made this decision.
41. While Ms Y argues Ms X should have had adaptations completed at this point, I am not satisfied this would be the case. After Mr X passed away the Council needed to reassess Mrs X to see if the adaptations proposed were suitable for her. Even if the Council had reassessed Mrs X promptly after it found out about Mr X’s death and approved the adaptations, I do not think on balance there was time by May 2022 to complete the adaptations.
42. Currently it is unclear whether Mrs X has reapplied for Council Tax relief for disabled persons.

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Agreed action

43. Within one month of my final decision, the Council agreed to carry out the following:
• Apologise to Mrs X for the delays in completing the adaptations to her property.
• Pay Mrs X £1,200 to acknowledge the delays in completing the adaptations. This has been calculated at £200 per month. In coming to this figure I considered the Ombudsman’s guidance on remedies.
• Pay Ms Y £300 to acknowledge the distress she experienced as a result of Mrs X not having adaptations and for the level of communication she received from the Council during the DFG process.
• Provide the Ombudsman with confirmation as to what changes it has made to its communication process for DFGs, following the review it carried out after Ms Y’s complaint.
44. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Final decision

45. I have completed my investigation and found the Council was at fault which caused injustice to Mrs X and Ms Y. The Council agreed to the above actions to remedy the injustice caused.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman