Summary: Mr and Mrs X complained the Council delayed completing a carer’s assessment which in turn meant they missed out on over a year of respite support. The Council delayed completing the carers’ assessment by 14 months. It agreed to pay Mr and Mrs X a total of £1000 to acknowledge the distress, frustration, loss of respite and time and trouble caused to them. It will also ensure its managers are aware of their responsibility to have sufficient oversight of allocated carer’s assessments.

The complaint

1. Mr and Mrs X complained the Council delayed carrying out and completing a parent carer’s assessment which it agreed to do in May 2021. They said the Council did not complete the assessment until August 2022 and their support was not in place until November 2022.
2. Mr and Mrs X said the delays and lack of support during this period has caused them distress, anxiety and has affected their quality of life.

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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. 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)
5. Under the information sharing agreement between the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman and the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted), we will share this decision with Ofsted.

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How I considered this complaint

6. I spoke to Mrs X about her complaint and considered information she provided.
7. I considered the Council’s response to my enquiry letter.
8. Mrs X had the opportunity to comment on the draft decision. I considered comments before I made a final decision.

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What I found

Parent carer’s assessment

9. A parent carer is entitled to a carer’s assessment to find out what help they need and how these needs can be met. An assessment will look at whether the parent has needs for support in their role as a carer. Sometimes a council will carry out a standalone parent carer’s assessment but, in most scenarios, it is likely the assessment will be combined with an assessment of the child’s needs at the same time.
10. The Children Act 1989 outlines the expectation that an assessment of a Child in Need, including all disabled children will be ‘holistic’. This means the assessment will need to take account of the needs of other family members, including the disabled child. The law says that when councils carry out an assessment then it must involve:
• The parent carer
• Any child whom the parent carer has parental responsibility
• Any person the parent carer requests the council involve.
11. The Council’s policy states as part of the assessment of the child’s needs it will assess whether a parent carer has needs for support and, if so, what those needs are. Various help and support is available for parent carers depending on the outcome of the assessment. This includes providing personal budgets in the form of direct payments for parents to fund support workers for the child which in turn provides respite for the parents.
12. The law however says ‘Any service provided by an authority in the exercise of functions conferred on them by this section may be provided for the family of a particular child in need or for any member of his family, if it is provided with a view to safeguarding or promoting the child’s welfare’.

What happened

13. Mr and Mrs X have children with disabilities and special educational needs. In early 2021 they asked the Council for a carer’s assessment as they were struggling to cope and needed some additional help to manage. In May 2021 the Council agreed to carry out an assessment and allocated the referral to a family worker for completion by the end of June 2021.
14. Records show the family worker did not arrange to start the assessment until the 18 June 2021. They tried to call Mrs X on 29 June but recorded there was no answer. The family worker visited Mr and Mrs X at the start of July to begin the assessment but recorded one of the children would not engage. The family worker visited again at the end of August where one of the children again did not engage.
15. Mrs X emailed the Council in September 2021 asking when she could access support because she was struggling to cope with caring for the children as well as keeping on top of household chores. Records show management oversight for the case recorded they were concerned about Mrs X’s mental health. The Council provided Mrs X with a number to call adult social care mental health services. The Council recorded Mrs X declined an offer of counselling.
16. The family worker contacted the children’s school in mid-November 2021 to request a visit to speak with them.
17. Case notes show Mr and Mrs X chased the Council about the assessment in November 2021 as they had received no further contact. The Council explained it could not complete the needs assessment until they had spoken with one of the children. They chased the matter again in January.
18. The family worker visited one of the children at school at the end of January 2022. They recorded the child was not sure whether they would like support from someone after school or during the holidays.
19. In February 2022 Mr and Mrs X complained to the Council. They said they had repeatedly asked for a carer’s assessment without any progress. Mr and Mrs X said they remained without appropriate support and respite to help them care for their children.
20. The Council responded to the complaint and said the family worker had struggled to move the assessment forward due to being unable to arrange a visit with the family. The Council accepted however there was delay and it would reallocate the referral to a new officer to complete. Mr and Mrs X escalated their complaint to stage 2.
21. Case records show the Council identified that the assessment needed completing as soon as possible.
22. The Council responded to Mr and Mrs X’s complaint at stage 2 of its procedure during June 2022. It apologised for the delay in responding. The Council said there was no statutory timescale to complete the carer’s assessment however it acknowledged there was a delay. It said it believed the initial family worker had completed the assessment in February 2022 however they had now left the Council and it had no records to establish what had happened. The Council said it was working to complete the assessment soon.
23. The Council completed the carer’s assessment in June 2022 and emailed a copy to Mr and Mrs X in July 2022. The assessment showed Mr and Mrs X should receive four hours of support per month during term time and eight hours per week during the school holidays.
24. The Council approved the support package in August 2022. Records show Mr and Mrs X agreed to receive the support by way of direct payments. The Council said it would provide the funding once Mr and Mrs X had identified an appropriate respite support worker. The Council referred Mr and Mrs X’s package to a registered charity which the Council commissions to help parents and carers people setup direct payments and advertise for support workers.
25. In early October 2022 Mr and Mrs X contacted the Council for an update as nobody from the charity had been in touch. The Council chased the charity and said it appeared Mr and Mrs X’s referral had been overlooked.
26. Records show the charity completed Mr and Mrs X’s paperwork during October and put adverts out for a support worker. However, it was not until the end of November 2022 that a suitable worker was found.
27. Mr and Mrs X remained unhappy with the Council’s handling of the matter and complained to us, specifically about the delays in carrying out the carer’s assessment.

My findings

28. The Council agreed to carry out a carer’s assessment with Mr and Mrs X in May 2021. While there is no statutory timescale to complete a carer’s assessment, we would expect councils to complete them in a timescale proportionate to the complexity of the issues. This is normally 4-6 weeks. The Council aimed to complete the assessment by the end of June 2021 however it did not make efforts to begin it until the July 2021. The initial family worker then left the Council without leaving evidence or records of a completed or part completed assessment.
29. The Council said the initial worker struggled to set up meetings with the family, specifically the children to obtain their views. While there are some case entries to support this there are large gaps of inactivity. The views of the child are not the overriding factor in a parent carer’s needs assessment. The aim of an assessment is to give a parent or carer the chance to tell a council how it could help make looking after a child easier. The initial family worker has focused on whether Mr and Mrs X’s child would accept support. There is no evidence the initial family worker considered what services the Council could offer to make looking after the children easier or considered other ways of providing respite for Mr and Mrs X which was the main purpose of their request.
30. After reallocating the assessment, the Council did not complete it until August 2022. That is a significant delay from the initial allocation which was caused by a lack of appropriate oversight and a focus on obtaining a child’s view rather than trying to support Mr and Mrs X. The delay in completing the carer’s assessment was fault which delayed Mr and Mrs X receiving the respite support they were entitled to.
31. Case records show Mr and Mrs X were happy to receive the support package by way of direct payments. I have seen no evidence to the contrary. The Council referred Mr and Mrs X to a charity which it commissions to help them administer the direct payments and find a support worker. When a council commissions another organisation to provide services on its behalf it remains responsible for those services and for the actions of the organisation providing them. The charity overlooked the referral which is fault and contributed to a further delay in commissioning a support worker.

Injustice

32. Had the Council completed the carer’s assessment by the end of June 2021 it is likely, on balance, that Mr and Mrs X would have had support in place by the end of September 2021 at the latest. This means the delay caused Mr and Mrs X distress, frustration and the lost opportunity for respite for 14 months and time and trouble chasing the Council about the matter.

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Agreed action

33. Within one month of the final decision the Council agreed to:
• apologise to Mr and Mrs X and pay them £1000 to acknowledge the distress, frustration, time and trouble and lost respite opportunity caused by the significant delay in completing a carer’s assessment between July 2021 and November 2022.
• ensure managers are aware of their responsibility to have sufficient oversight of allocated assessments to ensure they are completed in a timely manner. Managers should also ensure staff completing the parent carer’s needs assessments fully consider the needs of the parent carer and what things or services it could offer to make looking after a child easier.
34. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Final decision

35. I completed my investigation. I found fault and the Council agreed to my recommendations to remedy the injustice caused by the fault.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman