The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about delays by a council in arranging a care needs assessment. The Council has already investigated the matter and acted to improve its services. It has also apologised and started a care needs assessment. It is unlikely an Ombudsman investigation would achieve more.
The complaint
Mr X complains the social care team at London Borough of Wandsworth (the Council) failed to act in a timely manner on referrals for an assessment of his needs.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
The Ombudsman investigates 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 may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
Mr X had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I have considered the additional comments Mr X made to the Ombudsman.
My assessment
In March 2022 Mr X’s councillor sent a referral to the Council’s social care team. The Council placed Mr X on a waiting list for a social worker.
In April 2022 Mr X was admitted to hospital under the Mental Health Act. The mental health team contacted the Council and it assigned Mr X a social worker on 20 April 2022.
The social worker unsuccessfully tried to contact Mr X two days later. They tried again on 8 June but again could not contact Mr X. The social worker managed to speak with Mr X on 17 June and arranged an appointment the following week. The social worker needed to rearrange this appointment, but it went ahead a week later. The social worker started an assessment of needs with Mr X at this appointment.
The Council’s complaint response accepted there was a delay and that the social worker should have tried harder to contact Mr X when they were initially unable to contact him. It also apologised to Mr X that it had not told him a social worker had been allocated sooner. It explained it had reminded the social worker and the social care team to ensure they made more regular attempts to contact people, using alternative communication such as email or letter if they cannot contact someone by telephone.
The Council accepted there was some delay in contacting Mr X to complete a needs assessment after it received the first referral. It has however apologised and taken action to prevent similar issues in future if someone cannot be contacted. Once the Council managed to speak to Mr X, it arranged an appointment with him and started a social care needs assessment. This appears a proportionate outcome to the delays encountered and we are therefore unlikely to achieve more by investigating this complaint.
Final decision
We should not investigate this complaint. I recognise the distress this caused Mr X, but I consider we are unlikely to achieve more by investigating this complaint.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman