Summary: Mrs X complained about the care provided to her daughter Miss Y when she had a mental health crisis. The events occurred in 2022. We will not investigate the complaint because it is out of time.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains about the care provided to her daughter, Miss Y by Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council (the Council), South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (the Trust), NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (the ICB) and Beechwood Medical Centre.
2. Specifically, she complains;
• Miss Y was refused a Shared Care Agreement for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) treatment without justification, this is against established NHS guidelines.
• Miss Y was refused mental health treatment when she was experiencing a mental health crisis because she was autistic. Mrs X feels this was discrimination.
• Miss Y was prescribed an anti-psychotic medication via a letter and refused a care and treatment review when the family asked for an explanation.
• There were long delays in allocating Miss Y a social worker and she was not placed on the dynamic support register.
• The family’s request for a Personal Health Budget was ignored.

3. Mrs X and her daughter have been caused considerable mental distress by dealing with the organisations, at an already difficult time for Miss Y, who had to drop out of university and take a year out to recover. Mrs X explains the ICB's refusal to assess Miss Y for shared care left her paying for monthly private prescriptions and medication. Miss Y has lost confidence in the organisations to help her should she need help in the future. Mrs X was forced to change her working life to support her daughter and she also had to take time off work. She has spent many hours chasing the organisations without any support when this should have been put in place immediately.

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The Ombudsmen’s role and powers

4. The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman and Health Service Ombudsman have the power to jointly consider complaints about health and social care. (Local Government Act 1974, section 33ZA, as amended, and Health Service Commissioners Act 1993, section 18ZA).
5. 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 an organisation has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended, and Health Service Commissioners Act 1993, section 9(4).)

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered all the information provided to us by Mrs X.
7. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code, the Local Government Act 1974 and the Health Service Commissioners Act 1993

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What I found

8. In August 2022 Miss Y had a mental health crisis and needed help from the organisations listed in the summary of complaint. For the purposes of this assessment, August 2022 is Miss Y and Mrs X’s date of awareness.
9. Mrs X lodged her complaints with the organisations between April and June 2023. The final co-ordinated response from the organisations was dated 4 August 2023.
10. Mrs X brought her complaint to the Ombudsmen on 31 July 2024. She then waited for the response to a Subject Access Request from the ICB, which she received on 30 September 2024. Mrs X made a follow up complaint to the ICB on 9 March 2025, and she was told it was out of time. Mrs X then came back to the Ombudsmen and asked us to assess her concerns.
11. Both the Local Government Act 1974 and the Health Service Commissioners Act 1993 say complaints should be brought to either Ombudsman within twelve months.
12. The twelve month period runs from the day the person affected had notice of the matters alleged in the complaint. Miss Y and Mrs X were aware of the problems they complain about for more than 12 months before complaining to the Ombudsmen in July 2024.
13. Mrs X has provided some explanations as to why she did not pursue the complaint sooner, and there were also delays by the ICB. However, there were also delays which cannot be accounted for. The length of time which has passed since then would also make it difficult for the Ombudsmen to investigate.
14. The reasons Mrs X has provided are not enough for me to exercise discretion; this complaint is out of time.

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Decision

15. The Ombudsmen will not consider this complaint because it is out of time.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman