Summary: Ms X complains that a social worker unjustly accused Mr Y of making threats to kill a manager and this impacted his support and treatment. The Ombudsman finds no fault in the Council’s actions.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Ms X, complains on behalf of her father, Mr Y. She says:
1. A social worker unjustly accused Mr Y of making threats to kill at a meeting in December 2017 and this impacted his treatment and support negatively.
2. Mr Y has not had the therapy and service he should have received.

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What I have investigated

2. I have investigated Ms X’s complaint a) that A social worker unjustly accused Mr Y of making threats to kill at a meeting in December 2017.
3. My reason for not investigating the complaint b) is set out at the end of this statement.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. 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)
5. 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)
6. We may investigate complaints made on behalf of someone else if they have given their consent. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26A(1), as amended). Mr Y has given consent for Ms X to bring this complaint on his behalf.

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How I considered this complaint

7. I considered information from the Complainant and from the Council.
8. I sent both parties a copy of my draft decision for comment and took account of the comments I received in response.

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What I found

What happened

9. Mr Y has mental health difficulties. At the time of these events, he had been supported by the community mental health team for over ten years. He had regular visits from social workers and 1:1 therapy sessions at his home.
10. On 8 November 2017, Mr Y’s social worker visited him at home; this was the second time they had met. Mr Y was unhappy because he had been waiting for a hospital appointment and had just been told it was rescheduled. The social worker told Mr Y a decision had been that he would get no further input from psychology who had provided the therapy. Mr Y became more upset. He said he needed to know if the manager who made the decision was “friend or foe”. He said if he decided she was foe, he would be down to her office; he had nothing to lose. The social worker noted that Mr Y had become angry and raised his voice using “a threatening tone”.
11. The social worker told Mr Y he would document that comment as a threat directly against the manager and left. He noted in the records that he did not personally feel threatened by Mr Y. Mr Y says the social worker has recorded his comment accurately in the records.
12. Mr X said he was just letting off steam and wasn’t threatening. He said he didn’t want that social worker involved in his case anymore.
13. Just over one month later, Mr Y and his advocate went to a meeting with his consultant psychiatrist. When he arrived, the social worker was also there, and a ‘security guard’. He had not been aware they would be present, or that the purpose of the meeting was to discuss the threat he had made.
14. Following this meeting, Mr Y was refused visits to his home. He says his record says he is “aggressive and dangerous” and he believes the social worker influenced this approach inappropriately. I have seen no evidence of the social worker influencing this decision inappropriately. The Trust says there was no other impact on his treatment because of this.

Was there fault which caused injustice?

15. It is not the Ombudsman’s role to decide whether Mr Y was threatening or not, but to decide whether the social worker dealt with the situation properly.
16. My investigation is solely concerned with the social worker’s actions and whether it contributed to any impact on his treatment and support.
17. Mr Y says the social worker accurately recorded the comment he made. I cannot question the social worker’s interpretation of this remark as a threat. I saw no evidence the social worker expressed Mr Y’s comment as a “threat to kill” and I found no evidence the social worker influenced the decision in any other way. I therefore found no fault in the Council’s actions.

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Final decision

18. I have completed my investigation and have not upheld Mrs X’s complaint a). This complaint was that the social worker unjustly accused Mr Y of making threats to kill at a meeting in December 2017 and this impacted his treatment and support negatively.

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Parts of the complaint that I did not investigate

19. I did not investigate Ms X’s complaint b) that Mr Y has not had the therapy and service he should have received. This is because the service Ms X complains about is a mental health service and the responsibility of the NHS. Ms X has already complained to the relevant health trust and can now take her complaint to the Health Service Ombudsman.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman