Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of her housing and support needs. Part of the complaint is late and there are no good reasons to investigate now. There is insufficient evidence of fault with the Council’s handling of her homelessness application to justify our involvement.

The complaint

1. Ms X complained the Council failed to support her during the period from 2020 when she was isolated at home due to the Covid-19 pandemic. She also complained the Council failed to provide temporary accommodation, pending the sale of her home, and said she could not keep her dog with her in that accommodation.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. 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 a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
4. We investigate complaints about councils and certain other bodies. We cannot investigate the actions of bodies such as health bodies. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 25 and 34(1), as amended)
5. 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:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, 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

6. I considered information provided by Ms X and the Council.
7. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

Missed support from 2020

8. Ms X complained the Council did not support her when the Government said she should remain at home during the COVID-19 pandemic because she was vulnerable due to her health conditions. She said this meant she was left without access to essential medication, health care and support services.
9. We usually expect people to complain to us within 12 months of the events they are complaining about. Ms X complained to us in April 2025. She said the impact of the Covid-19 restrictions on her mental health meant she could not complain to us earlier. I do not consider there are good reasons to consider the period before April 2024, which is 12 months before she complained to us. In any case we could not achieve a worthwhile outcome if we did so, particularly as the support Ms X says she missed out on would have been provided by a health body, not the Council, and we cannot investigate complaints about health bodies.

Adult Social Care

10. The Council’s Adult Social Care (ASC) team carried out assessments of Ms X’s care and support needs in June and November 2024. Following the assessments, it made referrals to relevant agencies that could support her. This included a referral for an assessment of whether she needed any adaptations in her current accommodation, support to move to new accommodation and a referral for community mental health support through the NHS. The Council said this support remains available to Ms X when she is ready to access it.
11. The Council has carried out assessments and offered support or referrals for support, at least some of which Ms X said she could not access at the time. There is insufficient evidence of fault in the Council’s actions to justify further investigation. In any case, we would expect the Council to have had an opportunity to respond to any concerns about ASC through its complaints process before we got involved and this has not happened yet.

Homelessness application

12. The Council’s housing team received a referral from ASC in January 2025. Within three days, it had carried out an assessment, made a referral to an occupational therapist to assess the suitability of Ms X’s current accommodation, and accepted a relief duty. It also made an enquiry to establish whether it owed a duty to assist Ms X to protect her belongings.
13. The Council asked Ms X to provide standard documentation, including evidence of her medical conditions and the impact of her current housing on her health. Ms X had some concerns about sharing full health information and did not want visitors as she said this posed a risk to her health. It explained it would try to find temporary accommodation that would accept pets but that, if it was not able to do so, it would help her to arrange temporary rehoming for her pet. It said she had not provided medical evidence to show there were medical reasons she needed her pet with her.
14. The Council later offered her self-contained temporary accommodation that could take her pet, but the accommodation provider required weekly inspections, which Ms X said were not appropriate due to the risks they posed to her health. The Council said she had not provided evidence of the risks to her health.
15. The Council has taken the steps we would expect and there is insufficient evidence of fault in its handling of Ms X’s homelessness application to justify our involvement. Therefore, we will not consider the complaint further.

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Final decision

16. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because part of the complaint is late and there are no good reasons to investigate now, and there is insufficient evidence of fault in the Council’s handling of her homelessness application to justify our involvement.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman