Summary: Mrs B complains about how the Council dealt with safeguarding issues of members of her family. There was no fault by the Council.

The complaint

1. Mrs B complains that the Council:
• failed to properly respond to the safeguarding alerts that she and the family raised about her sister Ms J, and Ms J’s daughter; and
• failed to liaise with her or the family and refused to meet with them to discuss this.
2. Mrs B is distressed that the Council has not acted properly to safeguard her sister and niece.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. If there has been fault which has caused an injustice, we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
4. 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)
5. If we are satisfied with an organisation’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

6. I considered the information provided by Mrs B and discussed the issues with her. I considered the information provided by the Council including its file documents. I also considered the law and guidance set out below. Both parties had the opportunity to comment on a draft of this statement. I considered any comments received before making a final decision.

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What I found

The law and guidance

7. 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)
8. Anyone who has concerns about a child’s welfare can make a referral to the council’s children’s social care. Councils have a duty to investigate if there is reasonable cause to suspect that a child in their area is suffering, or is likely to suffer, significant harm. They must decide whether they should take any action to safeguard or promote the child’s welfare. (Children Act 1989, section 47)

What happened

9. Mrs B complains about how the Council safeguarded her younger sister, Ms J. Ms J is an autistic adult and has learning disabilities. Ms J had a child who at the time of the events complained about, was around five years old. Ms J and her child lived with her mother and siblings. The family has always supported Ms J and now her child.
10. I cannot describe in detail what happened as these are confidential to Ms J, and I do not have consent from her to share these with Mrs B or her family.
11. In 2021, Ms J moved from the family home into temporary accommodation. This was managed by the Council’s early help team, the housing team, and an officer specialising in autism and complex needs. The case notes show a meeting of Ms J and these professionals (some of whom had worked with Ms J for some months). Together with Ms J, these professionals looked at her family dynamics and the support she would need to live independently, as well as Ms J’s own wishes for her future.
12. In April 2021, Mrs B made contact with the Council concerned about Ms J and her child and whether they would get enough support to keep them safe when they moved. The Council is part of a multi-agency safeguarding hub (MASH). The referral case notes show that the MASH liaised with Ms J’s support worker and decided that the concerns had been, and were being, addressed by the Council’s support services. MASH was satisfied that Ms J was engaging with support through the Council’s early help team and the child’s school.
13. Later that month, Mrs B raised a further safeguarding alert about risks to Ms J and her child in terms of living independently, keeping safe, exploitation, finances and parenting. Mrs B gave further information and said the Council was not providing enough support or keeping Ms J’s child safe. Again the case notes show that MASH liaised with Ms J’s early help support worker and that there were regular visits to Ms J and that support was in place. The Council also said that an advocate for Ms J or her child could be provided.
14. The Council could not give Mrs B details of the outcome of their safeguarding enquiries because the information was confidential to Ms J.
15. In June 2021, the Council assessed whether Ms J had adult social care needs. It included both Ms J and Mrs B in the assessment. I have seen the assessment. This found that Mrs B was not eligible for adult social care support. Mrs B tells me that she challenged the contents and outcome of the assessment. But as the assessment is for the benefit of Ms J, and I do not have consent from her, I have not investigated this.
16. In July, Mrs B complained to the Council. In August, the Council obtained consent from Ms J to share information with Mrs B. In early September the Council responded to Mrs B. It said:
• The Council had found temporary accommodation for Ms J because she wanted to move.
• It had supported her with a food bank parcel and a food shop and acknowledged that making meals was difficult for Ms J as she only had a microwave and no hob until mid-May.
• There were several faults with the temporary accommodation, most seriously that the bathroom window was not properly attached. The Council had inspected the house within a few days of Ms J moving in, and had alerted the landlord to the repairs. The Council’s learning disability team also took up the repairs issue. However, this was not resolved before 19 July, when Ms J moved to her permanent address.
• Ms J was supported with setting up the temporary accommodation but her support workers were aware that her child was not staying there. Ms J’s early help support worker had visited Ms J’s child at school separately.
• The Council had made a referral to an advocate for Ms J, and had identified a suitable parenting course.
17. In September 2021, Mrs B complained further to the Council that it had not done enough to support Ms J and that it did not have a true picture of her needs or the risks to her. Mrs B says the Council did not understand the amount of support she and her family were giving to Ms J, or that her child was not living with her but was cared for by the family.
18. The Council explained that Ms J’s case had recently been closed by its Early Help team, but that Ms J was working with her child’s school. By this time, Ms J was in the process of moving from her temporary accommodation to a permanent place. Mrs B complained that the Council was refusing to deal with any member of the family. She told it that the family had financed Ms J’s move to her new property and arranged for her cooker to be connected; that although the family had set up Ms J’s household accounts, she still was not budgeting and so was in arrears; and that nobody had done any parenting work with Ms J or had talked to the family to understand what Ms J’s struggles were with this. Mrs B also told the Council that Ms J had disengaged from the early help team when her support worker changed, and she was concerned that the Council had closed her case.
19. The Council responded in February 2022, it told Mrs B that it had reviewed the consent it held from Ms J, and had decided that it could not share information about Ms J or the child with her.

Was there fault by the Council causing an injustice?

20. Mrs B is very worried for her sister and niece. She has been involved in keeping them safe for many years. Mrs B tells me that her sister’s mental and physical health has suffered greatly. However, overall there is no fault by the Council.
21. The case notes show that the Council took the contact from Mrs B seriously. The MASH, of which the Council is a member, liaised with the support worker and was satisfied that support was in place. The Council’s position is also supported by the safeguarding investigations in April (resulting in Ms J moving to temporary accommodation), and in the adult social care assessment in June 2021.
22. The assessments show the Council had an accurate picture of the risks posed by Ms J living independently and how to manage these. This accords with the details Mrs B has shared with me. It was clear that Ms J would not always engage with support and that she needed a good deal of support from her family. This does not take away from the Mrs B’s concerns, but equally does support that the Council ensured it was aware of the true picture, the risks, and the type of support Ms J would engage with.
23. The Council worked with Ms J on budgeting and maintaining the house in a decent state. It may not have been completely successful, but that is not fault by the Council. In addition, it is clear from the file documents that the Council understood that the child was not living there.
24. I have considered that Mrs B complained about the standard and safety of the first temporary accommodation Ms J moved to. The Council has not disputed that the bathroom window was not safely fixed, and that Ms J did not have full cooking facilities for some weeks. The Council inspected the house and pursued the repair issues with the landlord.
25. The Council reviewed whether Ms J should continue to live there. It decided that the broken window hinge did not make the property unsafe or unsuitable for Ms J. The Council has explained that these repairs were not considered priority issues and were within the landlord’s remit to resolve. The Council made sure that Ms J had a microwave while she was waiting for an oven, and it considers this adequate.
26. Mrs B also complained that the Council had withdrawn the early help support from Ms J. The Council said that it did this over a period and had several conversations with Ms J about it. In addition, it did a single assessment in relation to an application Mrs B had made. This allowed it to assess the level of support Ms J needed. A complaint about the level of support offered, is for Ms J to make. The Council has also offered Ms J advocacy, and this could include help with raising issues. If Mrs B or others are concerned there is a specific safeguarding issue, they can raise this in the normal way. We would expect the Council to consider these safeguarding alerts regardless of Ms J’s consent.
27. I am mindful that Ms J’s autism and learning difficulties makes it hard for her to engage and also makes it very concerning for Mrs B that her sister may be presenting in one way to professionals while being at risk. In addition, the Council could not always give full details to Mrs B and there appears to be some delay in how it dealt with her complaints to it. However, it did tell Mrs B all it could and had a duty to protect Ms J’s confidentiality and wishes on how much she wanted to be disclosed to her family. I appreciate that this makes it hard for Mrs B to deal with the Council and is frustrating for her if she feels the Council is not listening to her concerns. However, the Council has overall acted on Mrs B’s concerns and there is no clear fault by it.

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Final decision

28. I have completed my investigation. There was no fault by the Council.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman