The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this late complaint about the Council’s assessment of Miss Y’s care needs and its offer of direct payments. There is not a good reason for the delay in bringing the matter to the Ombudsman.
The complaint
Mr X complained on behalf of a solicitors firm in their role as court-appointed deputy for Miss Y’s property and finances. He said the Council: failed to make a proper care assessment for Miss Y, wrongly changing its view of the amount of care Miss Y required and the direct payments it would therefore agree; incorrectly took instructions from Miss Y and her mother, despite Miss Y lacking mental capacity and the solicitors being court-appointed deputy; determined an inadequate hourly rate for direct payments; and failed to resolve the matter when the solicitors’ firm complained.
Mr X said this led to delay in Miss Y’s assessment being completed. The Council declined to backdate her direct payments to the date the deputy first requested an assessment, and Mr X says Miss Y’s finances were significantly burdened. He wanted the Council to pay backdated direct payments to Miss Y totalling £50,700.
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)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Miss Y has a court-appointed deputy due to her lacking the mental capacity to make decisions in relation to her property and finances. The deputy is a solicitors’ firm and Mr X complained to us on the firm’s behalf.
In late 2022, the deputy requested the Council carry out a care assessment to determine what care and support Miss Y required. Mr X says the Council discontinued its assessment as Miss Y and her mother did not agree to the assessment. The deputy was not aware at the time that the assessment had been discontinued.
The Council completed an assessment after a further request, and wrote to the deputy in May 2023 confirming Miss Y was eligible for 105 hours of support weekly. However, in June 2023 the Council told the deputy it would offer 28 hours of direct payments weekly. It increased this to 30 hours weekly in September 2023.
The deputy made a formal complaint to the Council in October 2023, relating to the discrepancy between hours assessed and direct payments offered. The deputy met with the Council in December 2023 and raised concern during that meeting that the Council had taken instruction from Miss Y and her mother.
The deputy made a further complaint to the Council in January 2024 and the Council sent a final complaint response in July 2024. It offered to backdate the direct payments in part, amounting to £22,815. In this letter it signposted the deputy to the Ombudsman, explaining the time limits for complaining to us.
Mr X brought this complaint to us in July 2025. He says the Council misrepresented the timescales we apply when considering whether a complaint is late, and said the 12 month period should begin when the Council issued its final response.
The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate. Complaints must be made to us before the end of the ‘permitted period’. This period begins when a person first has notice of the matter, not when they receive a final complaint response from the body about the matter.
In this case, the 12 months began in December 2023 at the latest, and earlier – in June 2023 - for parts of the complaint. Mr X has not provided any good reason for the delay in the matter being brought to us. It was reasonable for the deputy to escalate the matter to us in July 2024 and we will not now investigate this late complaint.
It is not a good use of public resources for us to investigate complaint-handling in isolation if we are not investigating the substantive complaint. We will not investigate the complaint about complaint-handling alone.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s late complaint because there is not a good reason for the delay in the matter being escalated to the Ombudsman.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman