Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council (18 013 091)
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: Mr X complains the Council has failed to provide adequate support to him as a deaf person, causing him stress. The Ombudsman finds no fault by the Council.
The complaint
- Mr X complains:
- the Council’s British Sign Language (“BSL”) interpreter service is inadequate to meet the needs of himself and others;
- it is difficult to use the Council’s Single Point of Access service and there is no point in any event, as they would just refer him to the current inadequate BSL service;
- the Council has refused to fund a new BSL service provided by Sheffield Citizens Advice Bureau (“CAB”).
- Mr X says he has suffered stress due to the lack of support.
- Ms Y is acting as Mr X’s representative.
What I have investigated
- I have investigated Mr X’s complaints as set out above. At the end of this decision I have set out why I have not investigated other matters.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. If there has been fault which has caused an injustice, we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
- We cannot question whether a council’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)
- 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)
- We can decide whether to start or discontinue an investigation into a complaint within our jurisdiction. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 24A(6) and 34B(8), as amended)
- If we are satisfied with a council’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)
How I considered this complaint
- I spoke to Ms Y and I reviewed documents provided by Mr X and the Council. I gave Ms Y and the Council the opportunity to comment on a draft of this decision.
What I found
- A council must establish and maintain a service for providing people in its area with information and advice relating to care and support for adults.
- A council will carry out a care assessment to identify a person’s needs, how these impact on their wellbeing, and the outcomes that the person wishes to achieve in their day-to-day life. The assessment will help the council decide whether the person is eligible for care and support from the council. Not everyone has eligible care needs.
- The Care Act gives examples of how a council may meet the needs of a person assessed as having eligible care needs. This could include providing information, advice and advocacy. That is not to say the council must provide information, advice and advocacy to all members of the public.
Equality Act 2010
- Councils owe a public sector equality duty under the Equality Act 2010. This requires them to have due regard to the need to remove or minimise disadvantages suffered by persons with a disability. And, to have due regard to the need to take steps to meet the needs of persons with disabilities. This could include taking steps to ensure those with disabilities can access council services.
Single Point of Access
- The Council has a first point of contact for all its Adult Social Care services called Single Point of Access (“SPA”).
What happened
- Mr X is a member of a community group supporting deaf people.
- In October 2018 Mr X complained to the Council that its BSL/English interpreter service does not meet the needs of the deaf community who struggle to read letters from third parties written using complex language. His community group suggested the Council commission Sheffield CAB to provide an information and advice service for deaf people. He said the Council has refused to do so and suggested the group funds this itself. However, he believes the Council should fund this to meet its duties under the Care Act.
- The Council told Mr X it had a range of officers to support those with sensory impairment and people can access these services through its SPA. It has a BSL interpreter service which supports BSL users to access the information and advice they need to make decisions on their care and support. The Council is separately funding a BSL service for the community group on a temporary basis, with a view to the group sustaining its own service.
- Mr X then complained to the Ombudsman.
- In response to enquiries the Council said:
- It provides a BSL interpreter service that supports BSL users to access the information and advice they need to make decisions about their care and support needs and to support them with general information and advice.
- The SPA has staff that use BSL and it would arrange a BSL interpreter if needed when arranging a Care Act assessment.
- It has a range of officers and specialist social workers who can support BSL users.
- It offered to fund a bespoke BSL service for the community group on a temporary basis only.
- It is considering the request to fund a specialist advice service provided by Sheffield CAB.
- It recently carried out a care assessment for Mr X and did not identify any needs for the Council to meet.
Findings
- The Council should ensure deaf users can access its own services. However, it does not have a general duty to ensure deaf users can access the services of third parties. Mr X says he and others need information, advice and support to engage with third party services, but the Council does not have to provide this. Further, I have not seen any evidence to show the Council must provide Mr X this service by way of an eligible care need. I therefore find no fault by the Council.
- The Council should provide information and advice relating to adult social care and support. I note the Council provides a BSL interpreter service to support BSL users in accessing this information. I therefore find no fault in this regard.
- Mr X complains he has struggled to access the Council’s SPA and staff do not use BSL, but he does not appear to have complained to the Council about this. Further, the Council says its SPA has staff who use BSL. I therefore find no evidence of fault by the Council.
- The Council decided to temporarily fund a BSL service for Mr X’s community group. I have not seen anything to suggest the Council is obliged to continue to fund this service or obliged to commission a specialist service from Sheffield CAB. These are decisions for the Council to make in line with its procurement policies. The Council says it has not yet decided whether to fund a specialist advice service and therefore it is too early for me to investigate whether it has followed a proper decision making process.
Final decision
- I have completed my investigation. This is because I find no evidence of fault by the Council in its provision of services to Mr X.
Parts of the complaint that I did not investigate
- I have not investigated Mr X’s complaint that the Council reduced its BSL interpreter service from two full time staff to one part time staff member. This is because:
- this happened more than 12 months ago and it is reasonable to expect Mr X to have complained to the Ombudsman earlier;
- it is unlikely I would find fault and;
- there is no other good reason to exercise discretion.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman