Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council handled an annual review and management of the personal budget. This is because the Council has already accepted fault and offered an appropriate remedy in line with Ombudsman guidance. A further investigation by the Ombudsman is unlikely to lead to a different outcome.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained the Council has:
• Delayed agreeing and paying his child’s personal budget for speech and language therapy since the annual review,
• Provided poor communication,
• Delayed completing the annual review of his child’s Education, Health and Care plan, and
• Provided poor complaints handling.
2. He says this has caused him and his family stress, anxiety and exhaustion due to the uncertainty of whether his child would continue to receive the support they need. He says he has lost trust in the Council and feels he needs to check it has not caused further issues. He says dealing with the matter caused him substantial time and effort from the constant chasing of the Council.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
4. 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
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants, 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

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

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My assessment

7. I appreciate Mr X has lost trust and is frustrated with the Council due to his experiences with them. However, we will not investigate his complaints about the delays and poor communications. The Council has accepted fault and offered Mr X a remedy in line with the Ombudsman’s guidance. Further investigation by the Ombudsman is unlikely to lead to a different outcome and we could not achieve the outcome Mr X is seeking.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because the Council has already offered a reasonable remedy and further investigation is unlikely to lead to a different outcome.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman