Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the Council’s management and oversight of her care funded through direct payments. We are unlikely to add to the Council’s investigation.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Mrs X, complains the Council failed to manage her concerns about care funded through direct payments.
2. Mrs X says she became ill due to the Council’s failings and now finds it hard to trust people.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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 or continue an investigation if we decide:

• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organization.

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

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

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

Back to top

My assessment

6. Mrs X complains that the Council failed to:

• properly verify a care provider used under Direct Payments, including the CQC registration status;
• failed to adequately review an arrangement where a family member acted as a paid carer, creating a conflict of interest;
• failed to monitor the payment regime leading to significant public funds being paid for care which was not delivered or was misrepresented;
• did not deal properly with safeguarding including alleged fraud, financial abuse and misrepresentation of Mrs X ‘s mental capacity;
• disclosed her personal data to a third party without consent; and
• delayed responding to her concerns. 

7. The Council investigated Mrs X’s concerns. Its position remains that Direct Payments placed responsibility on Mrs X to choose and manage her care providers. However, the Council accepts some shortcomings, including failure to identify the lack of CQC registration, inappropriate correspondence handling, and insufficient review of a conflict of interest. The Council stresses it took the appropriate safeguarding action when Mrs X complained. It says it stopped the Direct Payments, made referrals to the Police, and Action Fraud, and liaised with the Care Quality Commission. 
8. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint. This is because we are unlikely to add anything more by investigating. The Council has acted reasonably once alerted via its complaints investigation by ceasing the direct payments and making referrals to the statutory agencies. Further investigation by the Ombudsman is unlikely to yield anything more.

Back to top

Final decision

9. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because we are unlikely to add anything to the investigation already carried out.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman