The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: X complained the Council failed to carry out an adequate adult social care assessment of their needs. As a result there cannot be proper consideration given to their housing situation and their social care needs have not been met. There was fault by the Council and it should make a payment to X in recognition of that.
The complaint
I refer to the complainant as X and use the pronouns they/their. X complained the Council failed to carry out an adequate adult social care assessment of their needs. As a result there cannot be proper consideration given to X’s housing situation and their social care needs have not been met.
What I have investigated I have investigated events from February 2021. I have not investigated earlier events as I consider that X could have made those complaints at the time.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
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 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) 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 considered the complaint and documents provided by X and spoke to them. I asked the Council to comment on the complaint and provide information. I sent a draft of this statement to X and the Council and considered their comments.
What I found
Summary of the key events In February 2021 the housing department requested an occupational therapy (OT) assessment of X and the property. X also phoned reiterating the request. At this point X was living in a property with a registered social landlord. In August 2019 they had presented to the Council as homeless because they were subject to violence from a neighbour. X complained to us about how the Council considered their housing situation and that is subject to a separate investigation.
The OT assessment was done in late April and a report produced. X was unhappy with the report and in June complained. This prompted the Council to carry out a social care assessment of X’s needs by telephone at the end of July.
X was unhappy with the way the assessment was conducted and made a formal complaint in early August. The Council responded in early September. The complaint response referred to older matters which X had raised in the complaint. A new social worker was appointed who had contact with X.
The position by the end of September was that X was reluctant to have a social care assessment until their housing situation was resolved but would agree to an independent assessment. In November the Council agreed it would look to appoint an independent social worker. Over the next few months the Council approached seven independent social workers. And proposed two possible ones to X in March 2022. From X’s online research they did not consider them to be independent. In April X set out the basis on which they considered a social worker should be appointed. In summary X’s position was that they would find and appoint a social worker and the Council would pay for the assessment without any other involvement.
X proposed a social worker to carry out an assessment. The Council responded at the beginning of July explaining why it did not consider the information X had provided was adequate to allow an assessment to proceed and concluded that X had refused to allow the Council to carry out an assessment and therefore it was not required to carry out an assessment.
Analysis The Council must carry out an assessment where it appears an adult may have need for care and support. Any assessment should be person-centred but there is no requirement for that to be done by an independent assessor, even if that is the person’s preference. Here the Council says it reluctantly agreed to an independent assessor as it felt this was the only way for an assessment to be progressed. It said X does not trust the Council and its officers. The relationship with the two internal social workers who had worked with X broke down which the Council attributed to X’s “demands, conduct, behaviour and overall attitude”.
It was pragmatic of the Council to agree to X’s request for an independent assessment given X’s views and the difficulties that had been experienced. However, the matter dragged on and the result was that eight months after the Council had agreed to carry out a further assessment it had not happened. This is in part because the Council tried to find a way forward that X was happy with. But, the Council has now concluded that X had effectively refused and it was no longer obliged to complete an assessment.
The Council allowed the matter to drift. I accept that was because it was trying to find a way forward that X was happy with but it did need to fulfil its duties. It had to consider the need for any assessment to be person-centred but that did not necessarily mean that X must be entirely in agreement with the approach taken. Provided the Council made sound and evidence-based decisions having regard to X’s wishes and circumstances then it was entitled to proceed in the way it considered appropriate. The Council has now set out its position and provided reasons for it.
I cannot say whether there was any significant fault in the assessment that was carried out. No written assessment was produced as it was overtaken by X’s complaints.
X considers that they have social care needs which the Council has failed to meet. The only way to know whether that is the case is for there to be an assessment. That may happen if and when X’s situation changes. But even if an assessment identifies unmet needs that does not necessarily prove that those needs were there before. However if that does happen X can make the complaint and it would need to be considered on the facts to see if a view can be reached.
Agreed action
The council will pay X £200 in recognition of the delays in the assessment process. It should do so within one month of this decision.
Final decision
There was fault by the Council.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman