Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Ms B’s complaint the care and support provider did not provide services she arranged for her son, Mr C, through his residential college. This is because we cannot investigate the involvement of the college, and there is not enough evidence the care provider is at fault or has caused Ms B or Mr C significant injustice so the complaint does not warrant investigating.

The complaint

1. Ms B complains with consent of her son, Mr C, the care and support provider did not provide services she had arranged through his residential college in 2018-2019. He needed prompting to get up and ready for the college day, ensure he returned to his room after college and completed his homework. Ms B says she therefore had to drive regularly 35 miles from home to the college to provide the missing support despite her own disabilities. She wants payment for her expenses. Ms B also says for the following college year, 2019-20, Mr C had to manage his own regime without support.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes limits on what we can investigate.
3. We investigate complaints about councils and certain other bodies. We cannot investigate the actions of bodies such as further and higher education colleges. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 25 and 34A, as amended)
4. We investigate complaints about adult social care providers. 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 action has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• it is unlikely we could add to any previous investigation by the care provider, or
• it is unlikely further investigation will lead to a different result, or
• we cannot achieve the result someone wants.

(Local Government Act 1974, sections 34B(8) and (9))

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered what Ms B said in her complaint, examined copies of correspondence between her and the care provider, and gave her an opportunity to comment on a draft before reaching a final decision.

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What I found

6. In August 2018 Ms B and her son met staff of the college he was due to attend and representatives from the care provider. They discussed and provisionally agreed arrangements for the provider to call on Mr C in the mornings to prompt him to get up and ready for his classes, and in the afternoon to ensure he returned to his accommodation and completed any homework.
7. In early September Ms B and the care provider completed an agreement about the services needed. Whether that amounts in law to a contract would be for a court of law to decide. Normally, for there to be a contract one party must provide something in return for the services of the other party, but in this case there was no payment and no service. It is not for the Ombudsman to decide whether this complaint amounts to a breach of contract, and we could not therefore hold the care provider liable to Ms B.
8. 11 days’ later the care provider discovered the college had assigned Mr C accommodation in a shared block where it could have no access. So it told Ms B it could not provide the service as it had originally thought. It repeated that message 13 days’ later, effectively giving notice to stop any arrangement it and Ms B had intended.
9. Even if the Ombudsman could decide on whether a contract existed, the event which stopped the arrangement was not within the control of the care provider. Ms B may believe otherwise, but there would have been no reason for the provider not to provide a service it would charge for unless it was prevented from doing so by matters outside its control. So the Ombudsman could not hold it responsible for any effect on Ms B or Mr C from what happened.
10. After the care and support agency’s staff found they could not access Mr C’s accommodation, they checked on Mr C by text message or telephone for a couple of days. They also arranged for the college wardens to take on the role of ensuring Mr C got up and ready for his classes. This is the arrangement which continued into the next college year and about which Ms B also complains. But the Ombudsman cannot investigate the actions of the college because it is not by law a body which falls within his jurisdiction.

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Final decision

11. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because we cannot investigate the involvement of the college in what happened, and there is not enough evidence the care provider is at fault or has caused Ms B or Mr C significant injustice so the complaint does not warrant investigating.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman