Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the care and support provided by the Council. This is because parts of the complaint are late, and there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained the Council failed to assess his physical needs and did not offer him the help he needed. He said he had no access to services when discharged from hospital. Mr X would like an apology from the Council and for the Council to investigate his data breaches.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)
3. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact 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 or continue an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
4. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint unless we are satisfied the organisation knows about the complaint and has had an opportunity to investigate and reply. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to notify the organisation of the complaint and give it an opportunity to investigate and reply. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(5), section 34(B)6)

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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. Mr X complained the Council did not respond to his self-referrals and requests for help.
8. We will not investigate parts of this complaint because they are late. The Ombudsman will not usually exercise discretion to investigate matters that took place more than 12 months prior to the complainant becoming aware of them. In this case, Mr X complained about the issues in June 2025. I have decided not to exercise discretion to look at matters before June 2024 because it is reasonable to expect Mr X to have complained to us about the matters sooner.
9. In response to enquiries, the Council said Mr X had been seen by an Occupational Therapist in August 2024 and had been provided with walking equipment. The Council said it had also completed a referral for an Occupational Health visit for Mr X in April 2025.
10. The Council said its Adult Social Care team had received a referral from Mr X’s housing provider in October 2025. The team tried to contact Mr X without success and then wrote to Mr X to ask him to get in touch regarding the referral.
11. In its complaint response, the Council said it had made several attempts to contact Mr X to arrange a Care Act assessment, but it had been unable to speak to him. The Council provided Mr X with contact details for its Adult Social Care team and asked him to contact the team directly to arrange a Care Act assessment.
12. In its complaint response, the Council noted it had not received information from Mr X about his data breach complaints. It signposted Mr X to contact the Council’s Information Governance Team to discuss his concerns about his personal data. Mr X would need to contact the Council with details of his data breach complaint to allow the Council the opportunity to investigate and reply.
13. We will not investigate this complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. The Council explained to Mr X that it had tried to contact him on several occasions in response to referrals, or to arrange a Care Act assessment.

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Final decision

14. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because parts of the complaint are late, and there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman