Summary: We will not investigate the Council’s response to Mr X’s concerns about a third party’s involvement in his parent’s finances. This is because we are unlikely to be able to add anything to the Council’s investigation.

The complaint

1. In short, Mr X is dissatisfied with the quality of the Council’s investigation into his concerns about financial abuse of his parent who is need of care and support. Mr X would like an investigation and answers to his queries.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse effect 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 an investigation if we decide the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
3. We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered the information provided by the complainant which included the Council’s responses to Mr X.
5. I also considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

Legal and admin background

6. A council must make enquiries if it thinks a person may be at risk of abuse or neglect and has care and support needs which mean the person cannot protect themselves. An enquiry is the action taken by a council in response to a concern about abuse or neglect. An enquiry could range from a conversation with the person who is the subject of the concern, to a more formal multi-agency arrangement. A council must also decide whether it or another person or agency should take any action to protect the person from abuse. (section 42, Care Act 2014)
7. The Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) oversees the work of attorneys including acting where there are concerns.

What happened

8. Mr X says he first raised his concerns to the Council back in November 2023. He reports that significant sums of money had been transferred from his parent’s account to a third party’s account unbeknown to his parent. He says the third party was acting as his father’s main carer and was also a registered attorney. Mr X says he provided a lot of details and evidence to the Council.
9. Mr X complains he was not kept updated of the Council’s investigation. He says his parent informed him that a social worker was due to visit him. And that he was not informed of the outcome of the social worker’s visit until Mr X emailed the Council three weeks after the visit. While Mr X says he is not surprised the Council decided to take no further action - due to his view on the ‘poor quality’ of the investigation to date - he was surprised to learn his parent was spoken to by the social worker while the third party was present. Mr X considers his parent would have felt unable to speak with the third party being in the house.
10. The Council’s complaints responses to Mr X advise his parent was spoken to in isolation from any other people in the house. The Council says Mr X’s parent may have alerted the third party of their visit, as it did not do so. The Council says, while it recognised his disappointment with its decision, Mr X’s parent was clear they wanted no further action taken on the concerns raised and they were happy to continue to have the third party in their life.
11. The Council’s position was supported by a senior manager who went on to review the actions taken to date, due to Mr X’s continuing complaints. The senior manager went on to apologis for the delays in Mr X’s case being allocated to a social worker. He also provided an apology for the failure to keep Mr X updated and said he would remind relevant staff of the need to keep complainants updated.

My decision

12. We will not investigate. This is because the Council has apologised for the delay and communication lapses while it handled Mr X’s concerns. This is appropriate. However, further investigation by the Ombudsman is unlikely to achieve anything more on Mr X’s substantive concerns. The Council reached a decision not to take any further action after speaking to Mr X’s parent. It is entitled to reach this decision however strongly Mr X disagrees or is critical with the ‘quality’ of its investigation.
13. Mr X may wish to contact the OPG directly to report his concerns about the actions of the third party. He may also wish to alert the Police if his parent wishes to pursue a criminal investigation into the missing money.

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Final decision

14. We will not investigate Mr X‘s complaint because we are unlikely to add anything to the response already sent by the Council.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman