Summary: Mr and Mrs X complained about Mrs X’s care and treatment in hospital, a safeguarding alert the hospital made to the Council, and an authorisation to deprive Mrs X of her liberty in hospital. We cannot investigate this complaint because the matters Mr and Mrs X complain about are not administrative functions of the Council.

The complaint

1. Mr and Mrs X complained that:
1. Mrs X’s diagnosis, care and treatment in a hospital were flawed;
2. the hospital wrongly raised a safeguarding concern with the Council; and
3. the hospital wrongly put in place a Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) authorisation, depriving Mrs X of her liberty in hospital.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. We investigate complaints about councils and certain other bodies. We cannot investigate the actions of bodies such as NHS organisations. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 25 and 34(1), as amended)
4. We cannot investigate complaints about actions which are not the administrative function of a council. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(1) as amended).

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. The hospital is part of an NHS organisation rather than being part of the Council.
8. Complaint a) is about the clinical decisions and actions of the hospital, rather than administrative functions of the Council.
9. Complaints b) and c) are about safeguarding and DoLS. Local councils have overall responsibility for overseeing safeguarding and DoLS processes. Councils are also responsible for processing and approving or rejecting standard DoLS applications from hospitals. However:
• if a hospital has a safeguarding concern, it is the hospital's responsibility to raise it with the local council; and
• in some circumstances, a hospital can give itself an urgent DoLS authorisation.
10. Mr and Mrs X’s complaint about safeguarding is about the hospital’s reasons for making a safeguarding report to the Council and whether it was justified in doing so. These are the hospital’s decisions and actions, rather than administrative functions of the Council.
11. The hospital granted itself an urgent DoLS authorisation for Mrs X at the same time as making an application to the Council for a standard authorisation. The Council has confirmed that it did not issue a standard DoLS authorisation for the hospital admission Mr and Mrs X are complaining about. As the only DoLS authorisation in force for Mrs X was the one the hospital issued to itself, this was not an administrative function of the Council.

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Final decision

12. We cannot investigate Mr and Mrs X’s complaint because it is about matters that are not administrative functions of the Council.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman