Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust

3. Mr G complains about the care the Trust gave Miss J from February 2022. He says the Trust:

•did not arrange for urgent appointments •at first arranged consultations with non-medical staff instead of with a psychiatrist •ignored a diagnosis made by clinicians abroad, insisted on assessing Miss J for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) only and would not prescribe risperidone (antipsychotic medication).

4. Mr G also complains staff slandered him (made false and damaging statements about him) by writing in Miss J’s medical records that they should not see him alone and that he might be hiding his daughter from medical professionals.

5. Mr G says these failings led to his daughter’s condition getting worse. He says the written comments about him caused distress. He would like changes to be made to stop this happening to another child, for Miss J to have appropriate support and access to medication and he would also like a financial payment.

6. Mr G complains on behalf of his young daughter who has special needs.

7. Miss J’s condition got worse at the beginning of 2022 and her self-harming got worse. In February 2022, the family contacted their GP practice and asked for an urgent appointment with a psychiatrist. After being assessed by a GP at another practice, Miss J was referred to the Trust. The Trust gave Miss J an appointment for six months later. Mr G says he contacted the Trust several times, stressing how urgent Miss J’s condition was. He says the Trust labelled him as a problem and told staff not to see him alone.

8. Mr G arranged for his daughter to see a psychiatrist outside of the Trust. Because Miss J was outside the catchment area, the psychiatrist was unable to refer Miss J to local services.

9. Mr G again asked for Miss J be referred to the Trust. This was done in September 2022. A Trust social worker and senior nurse practitioner saw her in early November.

11. The law says we cannot investigate a complaint where a person has (or had) the option to take legal action, unless we consider this is (or was) unreasonable in the circumstances. We have spoken with Mr G to understand his circumstances and the outcomes he wants. We do not consider whether legal action would succeed, but whether it would be a reasonable option to look in to.

12. Mr G’s key concerns relate to the care and treatment his daughter had and how he believes this caused his daughter’s condition to get worse. This suggests he could consider making a clinical negligence claim.

13. Mr G also feels Trust staff slandered him. He could make a legal claim for defamation (damaging someone’s reputation).

14. Mr G wants a financial payment as one of his outcomes. We gave Mr G information about our approach to recommending financial payments, including our ‘severity of injustice scale’. This scale sets out the amounts we typically recommend. Mr G said he would like ‘the maximum amount’ to go towards therapy for his daughter and to help the family to recover and reverse the harm caused by the Trust’s failings. Neither ourselves or a court can achieve the other outcomes Mr G is looking for. We cannot ask the Trust to arrange care or medication.

15. We asked Mr G if there was anything stopping him from taking legal action. He told us he might consider taking legal action after our investigation. Mr G was unsure about the cost of legal action or getting legal aid. We shared information with Mr G that might help him find free legal advice. We noted he might also find a ‘no win, no fee’ legal firm willing to take his case. Mr G said local legal firms will ‘not take on the NHS’.

16. Unfortunately, if someone decides to make a legal claim, we cannot help them with this. In line with the law, we cannot investigate if there is a legal route and it is reasonable to take it. Mr G has not given enough evidence or explanation to support his view that he cannot look into legal action.

17. It is in Mr G’s best interests to consider getting legal advice and to do this while he is within the time limits for making a legal claim. If successful, a court could award the kind of financial payment he wants. Legal action can sometimes achieve other outcomes as a by-product of any decision. This could include the service improvements Mr G wants.

18. If Mr G is unable to take legal action or the court does not look at all the outcomes he wants, he can bring his complaint back to us. If that happens, we will need to consider our time limit, so it is important for him to return to us as soon as possible.

19. We recognise how difficult Mr G and his family’s experience was and we are sorry we are unable to help him in the way he expected. We hope this statement clearly explains our decision.

1. We have carefully considered Mr G’s complaint about Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (the Trust). We are sorry to hear about his concerns for his daughter’s, Miss J, care.

2. We are not investigating the complaint further because Mr G can look into legal action to resolve the complaint.