The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about Mrs B’s Best Interest Assessment (BIA) and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) assessment in 2021. This is because we could not add to the Council’s responses or make a different finding of the kind Mr B wants.
The complaint
Mr B complained about the way the Council dealt with his wife, Mrs B, when she was in hospital between December 2020 and February 2021. Mr B says Mrs B was at risk remaining in hospital and everyone agreed she should be discharged but the Council applied for a Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) for a further 28 days. Mr B says Mrs B suffered unnecessary distress and the Council should have followed correct procedures. Mr B says the Council has refused to comment on some of his questions.
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 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 continue 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, or we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.
there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
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 has explained the legislation and role of the BIA. It acknowledged a standard DoLS authorisation should have been completed within 21 days of receipt of a referral, in Mrs B’s case 21 days from 30 December 2020 and apologised for the delay in undertaking the assessment. The Council explained the role of a Best Interests Assessor (BIA) is to complete a DoLS, not to arrange discharge from hospital. In Mrs B’s case the BIA used information from clinicians and decided to approve a standard DoLS after considering all the relevant assessment paperwork.
The Council has responded to Mr B’s complaints about the implementation of the DoLS, its communication with him and answered the questions he has asked. While he remains unhappy with the Council’s responses, further investigation by us could not add to these. Although Mr B remains unhappy that the Council will not answer all of his queries, it is not the role of the Ombudsman to provide Mr B with the answers he wants.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr B’s complaint because we could not add to the Council’s responses or make a different finding of the kind Mr B wants.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman