Summary: The Council was at fault for the time taken to complete a care assessment for Ms X and for the way it carried out this assessment. The Council was also at fault for delaying in responding to her complaint about this and for failing to carry out a carers assessment. Ms X had to wait longer than she should have done for an assessment of her care needs and she cannot be sure the Council has properly assessed her care needs. She also does not know whether she is entitled to any support as a carer as the Council did not carry out a carers assessment. To remedy the injustice caused, the Council agreed to carry out some personal remedies, including carrying out a new care assessment for Ms X and a carers assessment and making payments to her for the distress caused. The Council also agreed to carry out a service improvement.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains the Council:
• Delayed in assessing her care needs and delayed in responding to her complaint about this.
• Did not carry out a carer’s assessment for her after she asked the Council for an assessment.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. If there has been fault which has caused significant injustice, or that could cause injustice to others in the future we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
3. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint unless we are satisfied the organisation knows about the complaint and has had an opportunity to investigate and reply. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to notify the organisation of the complaint and give it an opportunity to investigate and reply. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(5), section 34(B)6)
4. 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)
5. If we are satisfied with an organisation’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)

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What I have not investigated

6. Ms X has raised concerns that she had a carers assessment completed by the Council in 2015. Ms X says the Council denied having completed this assessment, despite her providing evidence one existed and she has missed out on receiving annual carers payments. I have not investigated this as the carers assessment was from 2015. If Ms X did not receive the payments she believed she should have she could have complained to us at the time. Given the carers assessment was from nine years ago, I am satisfied Ms X could have complained to us sooner about this matter.

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How I considered this complaint

7. As part of this investigation I considered the information provided by Ms X and the Council. I made enquiries with the Council and considered the information received in response. I sent a draft of this decision to Ms X and the Council and considered comments received in response.

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What I found

Law and guidance

Needs assessment

8. Sections 9 and 10 of the Care Act 2014 require councils to carry out an assessment for any adult with an appearance of need for care and support. They must provide an assessment to everyone regardless of their finances or whether the council thinks the person has eligible needs. The assessment must be of the adult’s needs and how they impact on their wellbeing and the results they want to achieve. It must also involve the individual and where suitable their carer or any other person they might want involved.
9. Councils must carry out assessments over a suitable and reasonable timescale considering the urgency of needs and any variation in those needs. Councils should tell people when their assessment will take place and keep them informed throughout the assessment.

Carer’s assessment

10. A person is entitled to have a carer’s if they are over 18 and provide regular unpaid care for someone. It does not matter how much or what sort of care is provided.
11. A person is entitled to a carer’s assessment whether or not the person being cared for has had a needs assessment.  

Council complaint procedure

12. Councils should have clear procedures to deal with social care complaints. Regulations and guidance say they should investigate and resolve complaints quickly and efficiently. A single stage procedure should be enough. The council should include in its com-plaint response:
• how it considered the complaint;
• the conclusions reached about the complaint, including any required remedy; and
• whether it is satisfied all necessary action has been or will be taken by the organisations involved; and
• details of the complainant’s right to complain to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.
13. The Council’s adult social care complaints procedure says the Council will:
• Acknowledge a complaint within three working days.
• Offer to discuss the complaint with the person making it and explain how the complaint will be investigated.
• Respond to a complaint within 10 working days.

What happened

14. In late September 2022, Ms X asked the Council to carry out a social care assessment of her needs.
15. Ms X did not hear anything about her request for a social care assessment so complained to the Council in February 2023. After Ms X’s complaint the Council passed her request to the relevant team however it did not contact Ms X. Ms X emailed the Council again in late March 2023 and said she had received no response to her social care assessment request or complaint about this.
16. The Council attempted to contact Ms X on 30 March 2023 to arrange the assessment but was unable to contact her. In April 2023, the Council arranged with Ms X to carry out a home visit on 5 May 2023 to complete an assessment of her care needs.
17. The Council cancelled this home visit as Ms X’s social worker could not make the appointment. The Council rearranged the home visit a further two times and cancelled both appointments. Following this the Council allocated Ms X a new social worker and booked the home visit for 23 June 2023 to carry out the assessment of Ms X’s care needs.
18. On 26 May 2023, the Council responded to Ms X’s complaint. The Council apologised for the delay in processing her request for a social care assessment. The Council said it had now allocated Ms X a social worker who would arrange an assessment for her. The Council told Ms X to contact the Ombudsman if she was not happy with its response to her complaint.
19. On 23 June 2023, the Council visited Ms X at home to carry out an assessment of her needs. The assessment was finalised in October 2023 and the Council decided that Ms X did not need any formal care services from the Council’s adult social care team. Ms X disputes ever receiving the assessment or a written record of it.
20. In October 2023, Ms X raised a further complaint that she had not received a carers assessment for payments towards being a carer for her adult children. Ms X said she had a carers assessment in the past in 2016 and was eligible for a carers payment. The Council responded and said her children were not known to adult social care services nor were they in receipt of commissioned care.
21. Ms X remained dissatisfied and complained to the Ombudsman.

Analysis

Needs assessment for Ms X

22. The Council was at fault for delaying in carrying out an assessment of Ms X’s care needs. Ms X initially requested an assessment in September 2022 but the assessment was not completed until October 2023.
23. During this time there were delays in passing Ms X’s request onto a social worker as it took the Council until March 2023 to do this. Once Ms X was allocated a social worker there were several home visits scheduled to carry out the assessment which the Council cancelled.
24. A home visit was carried out in June 2023 but it took until October 2023 to finalise the assessment. From the assessment document it says Ms X has eligible needs, but it is not clear what these are. The Council also said Ms X did not require any formal care services, however I cannot see on the assessment document how the Council came to that decision or its rational. This is fault.
25. Ms X complained to the Council in February 2023 as she had not heard anything from the Council following her request for a care assessment. The Council did not acknowledge Ms X’s complaint or provide her with a response within 10 working days as per its complaints policy. This was fault. The Council took over three months to provide Ms X with a formal response to her complaint. I cannot see any reasons or justification for this delay. During this time period Ms X chased the Council for a response to her complaint several times.
26. As I have found fault I need to consider what injustice this caused Ms X. Ms X has suffered frustration as a result of the delays and spent time and trouble pursuing this with the Council. This is an injustice. Had the Council responded to Ms X’s request for an assessment sooner, she may well have not raised a formal complaint.
27. Ms X also cannot be sure the assessment the Council carried out properly considered her needs as it did not make clear what her eligible needs were and why she did not require any formal care services.

Carer’s assessment

28. In October 2023, Ms X asked the Council to assess her as a carer. Ms X explained she was caring for her adult children and another family member. The Council should have carried out a carers assessment for Ms X at this time instead of telling her that her children were not known to adult social care. This was fault. Ms X was entitled to receive a carers assessment even if the family members she provided care for had not had a needs assessment from the Council.  
29. Had the Council carried out a carers assessment for Ms X it would have been able to establish whether Ms X needed any support as a carer. Currently Ms X does not know what or if she is entitled to any support as a carer.

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Agreed action

30. Within one month of my final decision the Council agreed to carry out the following:
1. Provide Ms X with a written apology for above faults identified. The Council should consider the Ombudsman’s guidance on making an effective apology.
2. Pay Ms X £300 to recognise the distress, frustration and time and trouble she experienced because of the delays assessing her care needs and responding to her complaint.
3. If the Council has not done so already, arrange to carry out a new care needs assessment for Ms X and a carers assessment for Ms X.
4. Pay Ms X £300 to recognise the distress and uncertainty caused by not carrying out a carer’s assessment after she requested this.
5. Put in place new procedures to ensure that people are kept up to date when they request an assessment of their care needs, and are told of any delays in processing this request.
31. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Final decision

32. I have completed my investigation and found the Council was at fault which caused injustice to Ms X. The Council has agreed to the above actions to remedy the injustice caused.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman