Summary: There is no evidence of fault by the Council. Mrs X’s family are on the housing register but there has been no suitable accommodation available yet. The Council has said that it will review their banding to see if their priority is correct. The Council has advised Mrs X of her options, to provide separate bedrooms for her daughters. These include a discretionary relocation grant or a disabled facilities grant to alter her property, with a risk assessment by Occupational Therapy to address her concerns about safety if she wishes to go ahead.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I shall call Mrs X, complains the Council has not offered her a suitable property from its housing register.
2. Mrs X also complains the Council has not provided alternative solutions to provide adequate housing for her family. Mrs X says that Occupational Therapy have advised that her daughters now need separate bedrooms.

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What I have investigated

3. I have investigated the issues raised until September 2021 when Mrs X complained to the Ombudsman. The final section of this statement contains my reason for not investigating the rest of the complaint.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We cannot question whether an organisation’s decision is right or wrong simply because the complainant disagrees with it. We must consider whether there was fault in the way the decision was reached. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
5. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

6. I read the papers put in by Mrs X and discussed the complaint with her.
7. I considered the Council’s comments about the complaint and any supporting documents it provided.
8. Mrs X and the organisation had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments received before making a final decision.

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What I found

Key facts

9. Mrs X owns a 2 bedroom house, which she shares with her partner and four children. In 2019 a disabled facilities grant (DFG) funded an extension for a shared ground floor bedroom and bathroom for her two daughters, both with additional needs.
10. In 2020 Mrs X explained that her daughters needed separate bedrooms. Mrs X made an application to join the Council Housing register on in October 2020. The Council requested an occupational therapy (OT) assessment within a week to assess adaptation requirements.
11. The Council decided in December 2020 that Mrs X was not eligible to join the housing register as she had no housing need. Mrs X appealed the decision in January 2021.
12. The OT assessment was completed in March 2021. The appeal decision decided that Mrs X was eligible to join the housing register, with a band 2 priority with a registration date of January 2021, the appeal date. The Council has said the original application only included her local area but it has amended it to include all areas of the city.
13. Mrs X is eligible for properties with two or more ground floor bedrooms or the potential to add two ground floor bedrooms. The Council has said there have been 2 suitable properties in the last 5 years, both allocated to applicants in band 1. The Council has explained there are no suitable Council properties to rehouse the family.
14. In September 2021, the Council proposed works funded by a DFG, to give the girls a bedroom each but this would make the kitchen smaller. Mrs X says this layout is unsuitable as her children would need to walk through the kitchen unsupervised at night to access the bathroom. The Council has said the scheme is not ideal but is an improvement. The Council says that ‘Mrs X would need to manage safety in the kitchen, which could include safety gates, cupboard locks, emptying the kettle of hot water and moving things out of the way’.
15. The Council has said that it has told Mrs X there is also a discretionary disabled relocation grant (maximum £10,000) to assist with relocation costs to a suitable property.

My analysis

16. Mrs X complains the Council has not offered her a suitable property from the housing register. I have looked at all the information and can see no evidence of fault by the Council up till September 2021, when Mrs X complained to the Ombudsman. The Council looked at all the information when it reviewed Mrs X’s housing band and decided that she should be in band 2. This included the OT assessment. The Council has said that it is willing to carry out a further review of Mrs X’s banding to ensure that her family is in the correct band. This is especially important as the Council has only rehoused families in band 1 to suitable properties in the last 5 years.
17. The plans for the new extension were first proposed in September 2021. In response to my enquiries the Council says that in October 2021 the OT attended a meeting with the Housing Adaptations Team (HAAT). The Council says that ‘HAAT had drawn up plans for a proposed scheme within the existing footprint of the property as no suitable properties were available and this would be an alternative way of helping the family manage the reported behavioural problems.  The proposed scheme reduced the size of the existing kitchen but there was still access to the bedrooms via the kitchen.  The safety in the kitchen would continue to be managed by the parents supervising the girls, as they had already reported doing.  A risk assessment of the kitchen had not been carried out at this stage as this had not been highlighted as an area of concern because the recommendation of the OT assessment was for rehousing.  If the proposed scheme was agreed the OT would conduct a risk assessment to identify measures that could be put in place to reduce risk.  This could make sure the girls weren’t in the kitchen area together or while someone is cooking.  We could look at provision of safety gates and the family making the kitchen as safe as possible with cupboard locks, emptying the kettle of hot water once drinks have been made and moving things out of the way of the girls when the kitchen is not in use’.
18. Mrs X complains that the Council has not offered alternative solutions for housing for her family. I do not consider there is fault on this point as her family have been placed on the housing register, the Council has drawn up plans for the best available adaptations that can be carried out to her property and has provided her with information on discretionary relocation grants. Mrs X says that she wants the Council to provide her with an affordable loan so she can buy another property. The Council has said, in response to my enquiries, the only scheme it has available that would help Mrs X to buy another property is the discretionary relocation grant.
19. Mrs X complains the Council has not considered the safety of her children at night when designing the kitchen. The Council has accepted that this is the case and I can see that this was because the OT report was carried out before the extension plans were drawn up. The Council has said that if Mrs X agrees to the proposed scheme then OT would carry out a risk assessment. This seems reasonable to me, in that as Mrs X owns her property, her agreement to the draft proposal is needed before any further investigations take place.

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Final decision

20. I have completed my investigation of the complaint. This complaint is not upheld, as I have found no evidence of fault.

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Parts of the complaint that I have not investigated

21. I have not investigated events that have occurred after September 2021 when Mrs X complained to the Ombudsman. These events have not been considered through the Council’s complaints procedure.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman