10. The law says a person needs to make their complaint to us within a year of becoming aware of the problem. We cannot investigate complaints brought to us after one year, unless we consider there is a good reason to do so.
11. Miss E complains CAMHS did not provide her daughter with an appointment for an autism spectrum disorder assessment within the guided timeframe of three months.
12. Miss E also complains the Trust did not offer her daughter an alternative treatment pathway while she was waiting for the assessment.
Date of knowledge
13. Miss E told us on a telephone call, at the time of the referral by the GP, she was not given a timescale as to when her daughter would be assessed.
14. NICE guidelines state ‘start the autism diagnostic assessment within 3 months of the referral to the autism team’.
15. Miss E told us, using her previous experience in this area, she was aware of the NICE guidance and the timescale in place to recommend a referral to be actioned within three months. This shows Miss E would have been aware on 11 March 2018 that the Trust had not adhered to NICE guidelines. For this part of the complaint to be in time, she would have needed to complain to us by 11 March 2019.
16. With this is mind, this complaint component is three years and nine months out of time.
17. For the complaint about alternative treatment, Miss E wrote on her complaint form to us that her date of awareness was July 2020. She told us during a telephone call that she found out other families in similar circumstances to her were being offered HEALIOS (a digital provider of mental health, autism and ADHD services for children and young people) in July 2020, when her family had been refused.
18. She told us she was advised previously that HEALIOS would not be offered to her family as she had family members with autism diagnoses, and she had previous social care involvement, which meant she would not qualify. She told us at that point she ‘knew something wasn’t right’.
19. Miss E told us at that point she approached the Trust.
20. We assess Miss E’s point of knowledge was in July 2020, when she approached the Trust for an explanation as to why her family was not offered HEALIOS. This means Miss E had until July 2021 to bring her complaint to us.
21. Miss E complained to us on 7 December 2021. This part of the complaint is five months out of time.
22. We have discussed this with Miss E to understand the reasons why she could not bring her complaint sooner. We have also considered the time the organisation has taken to respond to Miss E.
23. Miss E complained to the Trust on 29 September 2021, and it provided its final response almost two months later, on 24 November 2021.
24. Miss E brought her complaint to us on 7 December 2021.
25. She told us that because of her previous experience, and the past referral of her older child, she was aware of the NICE guidance regarding the referral for an Autism and ASD referral and the three month timescale for it to be completed. However, she told us the reason she did not complain earlier was that she was realistic, and knew it was highly unlikely her daughter would have been assessed within three months.
26. She further explained her eldest daughter, who was also referred to the same service, was assessed in 18 months from her point of referral, and that was prioritised as an emergency referral, so she could not see a routine assessment being quicker.
27. Miss E told us she spoke to CAHMS in July 2020 about the lack of appointment and alternative treatment. She told us she did not submit a formal complaint to the Trust as she gave it the benefit of the doubt and gave it more time to try to get her daughter help as she was so desperate.
28. She told us she was not aware she could bring her complaint to us until she received the information on the final response.
Conclusion
29. We can see a two month delay in the Trust issuing its response. This did not impact the initial period of three years and nine months when Miss E took no action to complain.
30. Miss E told us she did approach the Trust in July 2020 to enquire about her daughter’s referral and options for alternative treatment. However, we can see Miss E did not submit a formal complaint for a further 13 months, in September 2021, as she told us she was giving the Trust some added time to arrange an assessment.
31. Miss E told us she understood there would be a delay in an assessment appointment but did not anticipate the referral would take almost four years to be arranged. This is why she submitted a formal complaint as her daughter’s mental health was deteriorating significantly.
32. We understand Miss E wanted to give the Trust time to arrange an assessment for her daughter.
33. We would expect a complainant to progress their complaint promptly when they were aware they had a reason to complain.
34. Miss E told us she did not know about us until she received her final response letter from the Trust on 24 November 2021. If Miss E had complained promptly following the date of knowledge, Miss E would have been advised of our services and been within our time limit. There is information available online about our service, therefore we would expect a complainant to be proactive in bringing a complaint to us.
35. We have considered Miss E’s reasons but have not seen that either of these are strong enough to set our time limit aside. It appears she took no action for a significant period, and we have not seen strong reasons to show she was unable to progress the complaint.
36. For that reason, we will take no further action.
37. We are pleased to hear Miss E’s daughter has a date set for her assessment with the Trust and we hope Miss E and her daughter get the help and diagnosis they seek.