Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about access to assessments. It is unlikely we could add to the Council’s reply.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Mrs X, says the Council made it difficult for parents to apply for a carer’s assessment.

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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 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:
• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation; or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome; or
• there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by Mrs X.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Mrs X says she wanted to apply for a parent carer’s needs assessment. She wanted to do so online. She says the Council’s website did not allow her to do so. Instead, she says it directed people to telephone. She complained to the Council.
6. The Council in reply accepted that its website needed improving so people could have better access to applying for needs’ assessments. It said it was looking at ways to improve this. It explained the ways Mrs X could access the services online. It also said a manager would email her direct so that she could access the services she wanted online.
7. It is unlikely our investigation could achieve more than this.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because we are unlikely to achieve more than offered in the Council’s complaint reply.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman