Summary: The Ombudsmen will not investigate her complaints about a council overcharging or the care provided to an elderly man by a council and NHS Trust. The complaints are late and there are insufficient grounds to accept them now.

The complaint

1. Ms T complains about the care provided to Mr H by Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council (the Council) and Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust (the Trust) between January and June 2017. She says the care provider, Creative Support, overcharged Mr H for services by but neither Creative Support nor the Council would discuss this with her even though she held Power of Attorney for Mr H’s finances.
2. Ms T also complains that Creative Support failed to provide adequate care for Mr H and the Council failed to complete a Continuing Healthcare (CHC) Checklist sooner. She says carers bullied her and Mr H. In addition, Ms T complains that Mr H’s solicitor would not visit him to change his will because doctors would not issue a letter.

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The Ombudsmen’s role and powers

3. The Ombudsmen have the power to jointly consider complaints about health and social care. Since April 2015, these complaints have been considered by a single team acting on behalf of both Ombudsmen. (Local Government Act 1974, section 33ZA,as amended, and Health Service Commissioners Act 1993, section 18ZA)
4. The Ombudsmen cannot investigate late complaints unless they decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to the Ombudsmen 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

5. I considered the information Ms T and her representative, Ms D, provided in support of her complaint, including complaint responses from the Council and the Trust. I also discussed the complaint with Ms T and Ms D.

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What I found

What happened

6. Mr H lived in assisted living accommodation. In December 2016 Creative Support started as provider of Mr H’s social care package.
7. The Council completed a financial assessment on 27 February 2017.
8. Ms T says she asked the carer to arrange a CHC assessment in March/April 2017, but the social worker would not agree to this.
9. A CHC checklist was completed on 25 April and the CCG completed a full CHC assessment on 24 May. This concluded Mr H was eligible for CHC funding.
10. Mr H moved to a residential care placement on 6 June. He died on 21 June 2017.
11. Ms T complained to the Trust and the Council via Healthwatch Bolton on 18 October. She and Ms D met with Creative Support in October 2017. It acknowledged charging Mr H too much and amended the invoices accordingly.
12. The Trust responded to Ms T on 3 January 2018. A further joint response was sent by the Trust and the Council on 12 July 2018.
13. Ms D contacted LGSCO on 20 July 2018 to ask how she could complain about being overcharged by Bolton mental health services. She was advised that verbal consent would be needed from the complainant. Ms T contacted LGSCO on 23 July. She advised writing letters was difficult and she needed help with this. LGSCO offered to take details of Ms T’s complaint over the telephone.
14. There was no further contact until 28 January 2019 when Ms D sent in a written complaint on behalf of Ms T.

My analysis

15. Ms T complains about events that happened between January and June 2017. Ms T was aware of the complaint issues at this time. As the complaints were not brought to the Ombudsmen until January 2019, these complaints are late. I consider there are insufficient grounds for the Ombudsmen to accept them now.
16. In making this decision I have considered that Ms T says she has difficulty writing letters and needed the support of her friend, Ms D to send written correspondence. Also, Ms D says she was delayed in being able to help because her husband was ill, she broke her arm, and she is carer for Ms T’s father, who can be ‘quite challenging’.
17. I have noted the Council and the Trust took a long time to send a final response letter and I have not penalised Ms T for these delays. Ms T cared for and represented Mr H’s needs when he was alive, and his finances in an official capacity as power of attorney. She complained to the Council and the Trust in a timely way (with the help of an advocacy service). However, it does not appear Ms T used the advocacy service after she had sent her initial complaint to the Trust and the Council.
18. The Ombudsmen offered to make reasonable adjustments for Ms T in taking details of her complaint verbally as she had difficulty writing things down. This offer was not taken up.
19. While the reasons Ms D has given for the delays are valid, I do not consider this would have prevented Ms T or Ms D contacting the Ombudsmen sooner to give details of the complaint or organisations complained about. This specific information was not received until January 2019, more than six months after local resolution ended.
20. Ms T’s complaint about overcharging has already been accepted by the provider (and the Council) and the invoices were amended accordingly. Ms T and Ms D have also confirmed this was put right. While it is evident this took some considerable effort by Ms T and Ms D, there is little more we could reasonably achieve by investigating this late complaint.

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Decision

21. The Ombudsmen should not investigate the complaints about the care provided to Mr H or complaints about overcharging by the Council. These complaints are late and there are insufficient grounds to accept them now.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman