The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Mr B’s complaint about the lack of care and support he received from the Council. This is because further investigation could not add to the Council’s response or make a different finding.
The complaint
Mr B complained about the lack of care and support he received from the Council. Mr B says he was taken into care as a child, he was abused and was not allowed to live with his father. Mr B says he should have received help before his father died and wants the Council to fully investigate his concerns about the abuse he suffered and care homes where he was placed. In addition, Mr B says he has had seven keyworkers in the past three years, they have not completed an assessment of his needs and will not talk to him about his past. Mr B says doctors have referred him to adult services for help and support and he is not receiving any.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse effect on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start an investigation if the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), 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)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
The Council responded to Mr B’s complaint. It said it had received several referrals since 2018 from different agencies including Mr B himself. It acknowledged that he has had several Social Workers allocated to him during this time. The Council explained each of the Social Workers involvement with him.
The Council explained safeguarding concerns it received about Mr B in 2018 were about self-neglect and he was referred to a Homeless Prevention Officer for support.
The Council says Mr B was not offered an assessment of need between 2018 and 2019 as no social care needs were identified. The Council says his main needs at the time continued to be around his housing and he was receiving support for this.
Records show Mr B declined input from Adult Social Care in January 2020. Between January and April 2021, a Social Worker attempted to arrange an assessment of need. However, Mr B was subsequently admitted to hospital. The Council arranged for Mr B to have support from Responsive Services but says Mr B declined this before it started. The Council says records show further attempts were made to arrange an assessment and he was visited January 2022.
The Council says case notes record the meeting as being difficult and the assessment was not completed because Mr B declined to answer questions and talked over the Social Worker during the discussion. Case notes confirmed with Mr B’s GP Practice that he had been referred to Mental Health Services and sent an appointment for an assessment. Mr B was supported by his advocate in April and discharged back into the care of his GP with a recommendation the GP consider a referral to the Neurobehavioural assessment team.
The Council advised Mr B in its complaint response his GP can refer him back to the Mental Health services if he wants to engage with the service and suggested he discusses it with his GP and his advocate. It confirmed when Mr B was discharged from Mental Health services in April 2022 an assessment of his needs was completed, and says his Social Worker will be working with him to identify how best to support him.
We could not now say whether Mr B should have had a Care Needs Assessment between 2018 and 2020. Mr B could have come to us if he needed an assessment and the Council had refused to carry out one. The Council clarified the role of Adult Social Care and explained the difficulties in the past with Mr B engaging to arrange an assessment and being able to gather enough information to understand his needs. Further investigation by us could not add to this or make a different finding to that already explained to Mr B by the Council.
The Council sent Mr B details on how to make a request to gain access to his records and confirmed it has not received a request from him. We could not add to this point. Mr B will need to provide the Council with the requested documentation if he wants access to his records. If he is refused access he can ask the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) to consider whether he should have the information he wants. Once he has access to his records he will be able to ask the Council to clarify its actions regarding the historic abuse he suffered when he was a child. We could achieve no more.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr B’s complaint because we could not add to the Council’s response or make a different finding even if we investigated.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman