Summary: Ms X complained the Council refused to end her father’s placement at a care home after he was admitted to hospital and continued to charge his care contributions. The Ombudsman finds the Council was not at fault.

The complaint

1. Ms X complained the Council refused to end her father’s placement at a care home after he was admitted to hospital, despite hospital staff confirming Mr Y would not be able to return to the care home. She said the Council’s decision to keep Mr Y’s room available for three months whilst he remained in hospital resulted in him paying for a service he did not receive.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)
3. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended).
4. 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

5. I spoke to Ms X about the complaint.
6. I made enquiries of the Council and considered its response including Mr Y’s care records.
7. Ms X 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

8. Mr Y suffered from dementia. He became a resident at Home A at the beginning of 2018. The Council assessed him as needing to pay a contribution towards his care fees.
9. In June 2018, Mr Y was admitted to hospital following a deterioration in his mental health. Immediately before his admission, the case records indicate Home A was struggling to manage his care and were providing one-to-one support.
10. Ms X met with the Council’s finance team about Mr Y’s financial contributions for his care. In that meeting the Council told Ms X that Mr Y was still liable for his care contributions whilst in hospital. Following that conversation, Ms X emailed Home A and asked if it could pause Mr X’s placement whilst he was in hospital. Home A sent that email to the Council to respond.
11. Mr Y’s social worker spoke to Home A. Home A confirmed that it had not served notice on Mr Y’s bed, but that it would need to assess him before discharge to decide if it could still meet his needs. The social worker spoke to Ms X, who again asked whether Mr Y’s bed could be given up whilst he was in hospital. The social worker explained that was not usual practice but agreed to discuss the request with their manager.
12. Following that, the social worker contacted Ms X and explained that as Mr Y’s absence from Home A was temporary, the Council would not close the bed. It said Home A would assess his care needs before discharge and if it could not meet his needs, the Council would have to find an alternative placement. It provided its complaints information to Ms X, along with an invoice for Mr Y’s care costs up until mid-June.
13. Ms X asked the Council if Mr Y could pay a reduced rate because he would not be benefitting from food or care provided by Home A whilst he was in hospital. The Council responded and reiterated that Mr Y’s contribution needed to be paid in full.
14. The hospital reviewed Mr Y’s progress at the start of July. He was not assessed as ready for discharge. A mental health nurse visited Mr Y to complete a Continuing Health Care checklist. Following that visit they emailed Mr Y’s social worker and asked what placements were being considered for Mr Y on discharge as they understood Home A could no longer able to meet his needs.
15. The social worker spoke to the hospital mid- August. The hospital said it did not have a discharge date for Mr Y and that Home A would need to assess him before discharge to ensure it could still meet his needs.
16. Towards the end of August Ms X visited Home A and started to remove Mr Y’s belongings from the room. Ms X emailed Home A and asked it to end Mr X’s bed.
17. Following that, the Council asked Home A to visit Mr Y and assess his needs. Home A completed that on 23 August and confirmed Mr Y could not return. The following week, Home A contacted Ms X and asked her if she wanted to collect some of her father’s furniture left in the room. She arranged for the furniture to be removed over the next couple of days.
18. The Council invoiced Mr Y for his care on 6 September 2018 and November 2018. It charged Mr Y up until 2 September 2018 when it ended his placement. Ms X did not pay that invoice. Following a change in Mr Y’s care funding, the Council did not invoice Ms X further until February 2020.
19. Ms X complained to the Council about its decision to charge for care contributions whilst Mr Y was in hospital. The Council chose not to investigate as the complaint was out of time. Ms X complained to the Ombudsman.
20. We decided to exercise our discretion to investigate the complaint because Ms X said she felt unable to complain at the time because of stress caused by both her parents care needs. In addition, she said the Council did not invoice her for her father’s care until February 2020.

The Council’s response to enquiries

21. The Council said the hospital did not tell it that Mr Y should give up his bed at Home A or that he would not be able to return there. It said the plan “is always to get the person back to where they have been living if at all possible and to give a period of time to see if a person’s mental health improves with treatment”. The Council said it felt August was the correct time to ask Home A to assess Mr Y.
22. The Council said it continues to charge until a placement is closed and would not close a placement when someone is in hospital as that would make the person homeless. It said it would only close the placement if it was in the process of setting up a new placement.

My findings

23. Ms X said at the outset the hospital told her that Mr Y would not be able to return to Home A on discharge. There is nothing in the case records to indicate the hospital gave that information to Home A or the Council. However, it was for Home A to assess and decide whether it could meet Mr Y’s needs not the hospital. In response to enquiries, the Council explained it would not pause or cancel a bed following a temporary admission to hospital as it could result in a person not having a placement available on discharge. The Council was not at fault in its decision not to end Mr Y’s placement following his admission to hospital.
24. Ms X asked the Council whether Mr Y could pay a reduced rate whilst in hospital. The Council said Mr Y needed to pay his full contributions. This was because it had to pay the care home throughout to keep the placement open. This was in line with the Council’s normal practice, as explained to Ms X in June 2018. The Council was not at fault.
25. The case records show an email from a mental health nurse to the Council in July stating they understood Home A was no longer able to meet Mr Y’s needs. It is not clear where that information came from. Although it was open to the Council to check with the hospital whether it was likely Mr Y’s mental health would improve, it was not possible to make firm decisions for his care after the hospital stay at that point. That was because any decision was dependent on Home A, or alternative care providers, assessing whether they could meet his needs when he was ready to be discharged. As Mr Y was not ready for discharge in July, the Council was not at fault for not asking Home A to reassess Mr Y as this time. The case records show that Home A did not decide Mr Y could not return until after it had assessed him on 23 August 2018.
26. The Council did not cancel Mr Y’s placement for ten days after Home A completed its assessment. However, as some of Mr Y’s belongings remained in the room there was no fault in the Council’s decision to charge until these were removed.

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Final decision

27. The Council was not at fault for charging Mr Y for his care after his admission to hospital therefore I have completed my investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman