Manchester City Council (23 009 832)

Statement Upheld Residential care 14-Apr-2024

Summary: Ms X complains that, despite her complaints, the Council’s care provider, Gorton Parks Care Home, continues to fail to meet her mother’s care needs. This includes not supporting her to eat properly, leaving her unwashed and in unclean clothes, and leaving her to use the rubbish bin in her room as a toilet. The Council accepts Gorton Parks needs to improve its record keeping. It has also offered to arrange a meeting with Ms X and Gorton Parks to enable her to raise concerns when they arise so Gorton Parks can address them. The Council also needs to work with Gorton Parks to make sure it improves the support it provides for Ms X’s mother.

Manchester City Council (23 012 140)

Statement Upheld Trees 23-Apr-2024

Summary: Mr X complained on behalf of himself and two neighbours that the Council failed to appropriately manage trees near their homes. Mr X also complained about the Council’s complaint handling. We do not find the Council at fault for its tree management. We find the Council at fault for its complaint handling, and this caused Mr X injustice. The Council has agreed to apologise.

Manchester City Council (23 013 960)

Statement Upheld Homelessness 13-May-2024

Summary: Mr X complained the Council wrongly placed him in an unlicensed House of Multiple Occupation (HMO) and it did not take account of changes in his health when deciding his homelessness application. Mr X also complained about the way the Council initially responded to his complaint. We found the Council was at fault for the failure to check licensing at the HMO and for its initial complaint response. We did not find there was discrimination or that evidence of Mr X’s deterioration in health was ignored.

Manchester City Council (23 011 175)

Statement Upheld Homelessness 27-May-2024

Summary: The Council was at fault for failing to accept that Miss X was homeless in December 2022, failing to offer interim or temporary accommodation, and failing to make reasonable adjustments for Miss X’s autism. As a result, Miss X remains living with her abusive ex-partner and experienced avoidable distress. The Council has agreed to apologise, offer Miss X temporary accommodation, make reasonable adjustments and make a payment to Miss X. It should also act to improve its services.

Manchester City Council (23 013 249)

Statement Upheld Friends and family carers 26-Jun-2024

Summary: Miss B complained the Council failed to offer appropriate advice or support to her, after her grandchild ‘C’ was left in her care. We upheld the complaint finding the Council delayed carrying out an assessment which found C was a child in need and in treating Miss B as a kinship foster carer. These faults caused distress to Miss B and a loss of fostering allowance payments. The Council has accepted these findings and at the end of this statement we set out action it has agreed to remedy this injustice.

Manchester City Council (24 002 119)

Statement Upheld Other 02-Jul-2024

Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about the Council applying a Council-wide block to her email address between 2022 and 2023. The Council has accepted fault, apologised and offered a suitable financial remedy. It is unlikely an investigation would lead to a different outcome or achieve anything more.

Manchester City Council (23 016 077)

Statement Upheld Assessment and care plan 22-Jul-2024

Summary: Mrs X complained the Council failed to find supported accommodation for her son and did not provide respite breaks for her family. The Council had previously found suitable placements for Y for respite breaks in Manchester but we found the Council did not take sufficient action to find a placement for Y during 2022. Although we found fault by the Council we did not find this caused Mrs X’s son to miss out on a placement or Mrs X to miss out on respite. This was because it seems likely Mrs X would not have accepted a placement in Manchester for Y.

Manchester City Council (23 011 109)

Statement Upheld Assessment and care plan 05-Aug-2024

Summary: There was fault in the way the Council responded to a request to assess and support Mr C. There were delays in the Council’s response, a failure to cooperate between the Council’s different departments and a lack of proactive action from the Council. The Council has agreed to apologise, pay a symbolic financial remedy, re-assess Mr C, hold a multi-disciplinary meeting and carry out a service improvement.

Manchester City Council (24 000 639)

Statement Upheld Domiciliary care 18-Aug-2024

Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about failure by an adult social care provider to contact its client’s next of kin when the client became unwell, and after the client died. The care provider has apologised for the distress caused and has contacted all relevant clients to ensure it has contact details for their next of kin. It is unlikely an Ombudsman investigation would achieve anything further.

Manchester City Council (24 008 266)

Statement Upheld Parking and other penalties 17-Sep-2024

Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about information on a pay by phone parking app which the complainant says is misleading. This is because the complainant could have used his appeal rights and because the Council has already taken satisfactory action.