Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint, made on behalf of Miss Y, about the Council’s process to find Miss Y a supported living placement by summer 2023. That process is ongoing and there is no different outcome an investigation would achieve now. The Council’s apology remedies the stress and anxiety caused by delay in the process so a different outcome could not be achieved for this issue. There is not enough unremedied significant personal injustice to Mrs X or Miss Y caused by the Council’s actions and decisions so far to justify an investigation.

The complaint

1. Mrs X is Miss Y’s mother. Miss Y is in her early 20s and currently at a residential college until July 2023. She is due to go into an assisted living placement when her college time ends. Mrs X complains the Council has:
1. failed to organise an assisted living placement for Miss Y for this summer;
2. failed to keep her and Miss Y properly informed about what is happening with the placement.
2. Mrs X says the situation has caused a great deal of stress to her and Miss Y, which is affecting Miss Y’s last months at the college. They are both worried Miss Y will have to wait between 12 and 18 months for a new placement, that this will mean she will have to live in a care home and be unable to socialise or make a life for herself with her peers in a new community. Mrs X wants the Council to:
• find a placement by the date Miss Y leaves college;
• communicate openly and honestly with them about the process of finding the placement, and in a timely way so they know what is happening;
• consider offers from all bodies which could provide a suitable property.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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:

• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome; or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information from Mrs X, and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. I recognise Mrs X and Miss Y have significant concerns about Miss Y’s next placement. The Council accepts there has been delay in it finding a supported living option for Miss Y. It says it first investigated placing Miss Y in existing supported living facilities but should have identified sooner that none would meet her needs.
6. But Miss Y requires a placement later this year so that process is ongoing and the Council has indicated it continues to seek an appropriate placement. We cannot intervene in the Council’s ongoing procedure to find a suitable placement and involve Miss Y and Mrs X in that process. It remains the role of the Council’s officers to complete that process by the time Miss Y leaves college and to advise her and Mrs X of progress whenever they can provide further information. An investigation of the process by us at this stage would not lead to a different outcome here so we will not investigate.
7. The Council accepts delay in its initial work to find Miss Y a placement has caused her and Mrs X stress and anxiety. But it has apologised for this in its complaint response. Were we to investigate, an apology, as already provided by the Council, is the outcome we would have sought here. So investigation would not achieve a different outcome on this part of the complaint.
8. I understand Miss Y and Mrs X’s concerns about Miss Y having to wait for her next permanent placement while in a care home and the negative impacts they consider this will have on Miss Y’s wellbeing and life. In its complaint response, the Council has noted Mrs X’s view that a care home placement would not be suitable and that Miss Y cannot live with her for any interim period. But the Council has not made any decision to house Miss Y in a care home placement. While I recognise Mrs X’s and Mrs Y’s concerns, they are currently concerns about what might happen. We cannot remedy a speculative injustice to someone stemming from a council decision it has not made. There is no Council decision here which causes the injustice claimed to Miss Y so we will not investigate.
9. If the Council does make a future decision to house Miss Y in a placement she or Mrs X believe is unsuitable and does not meet Miss Y’s assessed care needs, they would need to make a fresh complaint. This must be a complaint to the Council first of all because it would be about a new decision on Miss Y’s care provision. If they remain dissatisfied with the final outcome of the Council’s complaint process, or the Council has not dealt with the complaint within three months of them lodging it, they may wish to bring this new matter to us for our consideration.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because:
• we could not achieve a different outcome for Miss Y regarding the ongoing placement decision process; and
• the Council’s apology remedies the stress and anxiety caused by delay in the process so a different outcome could not be achieved for this issue; and
• there is not enough unremedied significant personal injustices to Mrs X or Miss Y caused by the Council’s actions and decisions so far to justify an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman