Summary: There was fault by the Council as it delayed responding to a query on a financial assessment. The Council’s apology and response to the query remedied the injustice caused. A Council officer’s use of informal language was inappropriate but not significant enough to be called '’fault’. There is insufficient evidence to show there was fault by the Council or the care home in relation to complaints that a residents’ room in a care home was cold.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mr B complains for his mother Mrs C. Mr B complains there was delay in responding to and resolving a query on a financial assessment in 2018. He also complains that language used by a Council Officer in emails was inappropriate and wrong.
2. Mr B also complains that a breakdown in a care home’s heating system was not responded to quickly enough and that the Council did not respond to his contacts on this matter quickly enough.
3. Mr B also complains about several other events from 2016 to 2018. He says the Council’s actions have caused him distress, anger and frustration.

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What I have investigated

4. I have investigated events from March 2018 onwards. The final section of this statement contains my reason(s) for not investigating the rest of the complaint.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

5. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We cannot question whether a council’s decision is right or wrong simply because the complainant disagrees with it. We must consider whether there was fault in the way the decision was reached. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
6. If we are satisfied with a council’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

7. I read the papers submitted by Mr B.
8. I considered the Council’s comments about the complaint and any supporting documents it provided.
9. Mr B and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments received before making a final decision.

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What I found

Conduct of Council Officer

10. Mr B complains that a Council officer said that ‘Mrs C is being kicked out of the home because of the untoward behaviour of Mr B’ and that ‘Mr B told something to a staff member’, who he had never met.
11. In response to my enquiries the Council officer said ‘I am all well too aware that people see things differently and, with this being the case, if there is anything I said that Mr B has found offensive, I apologise that he feels offended’. The Council’s Head of Service said he appreciated that the wording used in an internal email may have caused some upset. The Head of Service said ‘It was never the intention of any officer to do this and he was responding to why a care home may ask for a resident to leave. We apologise for any upset caused however the intention was to provide reasons in general why a care home may ask for a resident to leave’.
12. I appreciate that Mr B is upset with the Council’s wording and I do think the phrase ‘kicked out’ was not appropriate. There is also clearly some confusion about who spoke to who and how Mr B got the internal emails. I am satisfied that Mr B obtained the emails legitimately from the Council.
13. On balance, though, I cannot say the use of one inappropriate phrase in an email was fault. The Council officer made a mistake in the wording he used and he and the head of service have apologised. I appreciate Mr B was upset, but I am not convinced there is enough injustice caused by the informal choice of words to warrant further investigation or a finding of fault.

2018 Financial Assessment

14. Mrs C moved to the care home in December 2016.
15. A financial assessment was carried out in August 2018. This decided that Mrs C needed to pay £137 towards her care per week.
16. Mr B said in October 2018 the financial assessment was wrong, as Mrs C did not receive pension credit. The finance officer advised Mr B to apply for pension credit to top up Mrs C’s income and that in his opinion, the DWP would backdate it to April 2018.
17. Mr B told the finance officer that the DWP would not backdate the pension credit and asked the officer to use Mrs C’s actual income. After Mr B made a complaint, Mrs C was reassessed to pay £50 per week in November 2018 and the care home was told.
18. In its response to Mr B’s complaint, the Council apologised for the delay in responding to his request for financial reassessment.
19. Mr B complains the delay caused him distress, anger and frustration. He has not complained of financial loss. There was fault by the Council, in that it delayed responding to his emails. While I appreciate the situation was frustrating, the Council has apologised and corrected the situation. I consider, in the circumstances this is a satisfactory remedy to his injustice.
20. Mr B complained to the Ombudsman that the Council’s response to his complaint was incorrect, in that he was still getting incorrect invoices from the care home. The Council has explained there is now one outstanding invoice that Mr B needs to pay for £200. This has arisen as the care home invoices every 4 weeks rather than per calendar month so there is an extra invoice.
21. The Council has sent me a summary of the charges and I have forwarded these to Mr B so he can see exactly what payments have been made and when. If he can identify where the invoices are incorrect, I can ask the Council to look into this further.

Heating complaint

22. Mr B said the heating in his mother’s care home on the middle and top floor had been broken since mid-December 2018. Mr B said that on 19 January 2019 he visited his mother in her room and found there was no heating in her room.
23. Mr B said that on 20 January 2019 he measured the temperature of various parts of the care home to be 8-9 degrees Celsius. Mr B said that he emailed the Council using their online form and directly emailed his mother’s social worker. Mr B said he did not get a reply and so telephoned the Council during the week. He said that he heard a week later that the case was closed.
24. In response to my enquiries the care home said the heating system was working but had lost efficiency. The boilers were replaced from 15 to 22 January 2019. The care home said that all rooms had portable heaters and corridors had heavy duty heaters.
25. The care home has sent me temperature logs taken on Tuesday 15 and Tuesday 22 January 2019 which show the room temperatures between 22 and 25 degrees. The temperatures were taken weekly so there is no record of the exact temperatures on the days Mr B complains about – 19 and 20 January.
26. The Council has said that its adult social care department holds no record of Mr B telephoning the council and/or filling in an online form on the Saturday. Mr B has supplied a copy of the email he sent at 10 pm on 20 January 2019 to the social worker but there is no record of this email in the notes the Council sent to me.
27. It is clear there was a problem with the care home heating on the weekend Mr B complains about. The care home says there was adequate alternative heating but Mr B says there was not and his mother’s room was cold.
28. I have looked at all the information and there is simply not enough evidence to conclude there was fault by the Council or the care home. The work to the care homes heating system was a planned boiler replacement and it had put alternative heating in place. It is entirely possible, as Mr B says, that Mrs C’s room was cold for a period of time on that date but there is simply no independent evidence to support this. I cannot reach a conclusion there was fault by the care home without evidence and so there is nothing further I can investigate on this point.
29. It is clear that Mr B tried to contact the Council about the problem. And, that he may not have received a reply to his phone calls and emails as quickly as he wanted. I am not able to establish exactly what happened in response but am not sure what else the Council could have done. The care home had responded to Mr B’s concerns directly by email the next day. The replacement of the heating boiler needed to be done and the work was finished 2 days after Mr B emailed the Council. There was nothing the social worker could have done to speed up the works, which were already almost complete and so I cannot see that further investigation of this point is warranted. The care home provided alternative heating, initially a fan heater (which Mrs C could not tolerate the noise of) and then an oil radiator.

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Final decision

30. I have completed my investigation of this complaint. This complaint is upheld, in that there was delay by the Council in responding to queries on a financial assessment. The Council has already apologised and responded to the queries, which I consider is a satisfactory remedy to the complaint.

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Parts of the complaint that I did not investigate

31. I have not investigated Mr B's complaints about things that happened before March 2018. Mr B has not complained about the issues until now to the Ombudsman.
32. Mr B complained to the Council and received a final response in November 2016. He was given the details of the Ombudsman but did not complain at the time. So, he was clearly aware of the Ombudsman’s service. This is a late complaint and I have seen no good reason to exercise discretion to accept it for investigation now.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman