Summary: There is no evidence of fault in the Council’s response to Mr X. There is no reason why Mr X cannot access advocacy support.

The complaint

1. Mr X (the complainant) complains the Council delayed in carrying out an assessment and will not assess his eligible needs according to his self-assessment. He also complains that he cannot access advocacy support.

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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. 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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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered the information provided by Mr X and by the Council. Both Mr X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on a draft of this statement and I considered their comments before I reached a final decision.

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What I found

Relevant law and guidance

5. 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.
6. 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.
7. The Care and Support Statutory Guidance says that “An ‘assessment’ must always be appropriate and proportionate. It may come in different formats and can be carried out in various ways, including but not limited to….

a face-to-face assessment between the person and an assessor, whose professional role and qualifications may vary depending on the circumstances, but who must always be appropriately trained and have the right skills and knowledge.

a supported self-assessment, which should use similar assessment materials as used in other forms of needs or carers’ assessments, but where the person completes the assessment themselves and the local authority assures itself that it is an accurate reflection of the person’s needs”.

What happened

8. Mr X completed a Care Act self-assessment form and submitted it to a social worker (who was part of an integrated team with the local NHS body) in June 2023. The social worker left that employment and the team was broken up, so Mr X’s self-assessment document was not sent to the Council until March 2024. Mr X complained to the Council about the delay. He said he had been assessed in 2017 by a social worker for the integrated team and asked the Council to retrieve that record.
9. The Council allocated a new social worker who contacted Mr X on 11 March to arrange an assessment. Her file note records Mr X “was upset and reported that he already sent in self-assessment and he would like me to use it to complete CAA. I explained to him that this need to be carried out to establish his care and support needs.”. The social worker sent Mr X the appropriate forms to complete prior to an in-person assessment but he refused to complete them as he said he had had an assessment before and his needs had not changed. The social worker noted “more information is needed in the Comments section as to how his social care needs are impacting him and what support he feels he needs to manage, from a strength-based perspective, as this information is missing”.
10. The Council also wrote to Mr X about the delay in acting on the receipt of his self-assessment. It explained why it had not received it until March 2024. It said “The Self-Assessment will provide an opportunity for Harrow to look at your strengths and needs. This in return will assist when the social worker completes the Care Act Assessment. Self-Assessments are not solely used when care and support needs are identified, hence the need of Care Act Assessment. I can see that you have not had a Care Act Assessment and for this I would like to apologise.” The Council also apologised that his previous social worker had left without telling him. The Council added that Mr X would need to obtain any records from the NHS body previously involved direct.
11. Mr X asked for an advocate and a copy of his previous assessments before he would meet. The social worker asked Mr X to sign a consent form for her to refer him for advocacy. Mr X refused to sign: he said he obviously consented as he had asked for the advocate himself. The social worker explained she needed his consent to share his details with another agency. She asked him to let her know which site he would prefer the assessment to take place at.
12. Mr X said the social worker was not complying with the Care Act. He said she should discuss with him his preference for the assessment. He said she should tell him how to contact an advocate. Finally, he said she should provide his previous assessment.
13. The social worker sent details of the advocacy organization to Mr X to contact.
14. A file note for July noted that the advocacy service had tried to contact Mr X on multiple occasions but without any response from him. The social worker noted she had seen the previous self-assessment form and there was no evidence of eligible needs. She wrote to Mr X asking him to continue with the assessment process and giving a date of 9 August for him to contact her. As Mr X did not contact the Council he was referred back to his GP.
15. Mr X complained to the Ombudsman. He said the Council had failed to respond to him for eight months after he submitted a self-assessment form. He said his previous social worker had left without providing contact details, and as a result he had suffered a loss of service.

Analysis

16. The Council has explained to Mr X why his self-assessment was not acknowledged for several months and provided him with details of how to contact the NHS body for copies of his files. That is up to Mr X to progress: it is not a matter for the Council to share documents from the NHS records.
17. The Council has apologised for the delay. However, as Mr X has not responded to the Council’s efforts to progress the assessment further, there is no evidence the delay caused him injustice.
18. The Council needs more details from Mr X to complete a full assessment and establish if he has eligible needs. It has offered to meet him to complete the process but so far he has refused. That is not fault on the part of the Council. The Care Act says that a supported self-assessment can be used if “the local authority assures itself that it is an accurate reflection of the person’s needs”. The Council’s notes say it needs more information on “how his social care needs are impacting him and what support he feels he needs to manage, from a strength-based perspective”. At the moment therefore the self-assessment is insufficient.
19. The Council sent Mr X details of the advocacy service as he did not give written consent to share his details with it. That is a matter for Mr X to resolve.

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Final decision

20. I have completed this investigation on the basis that there has been no fault on the part of the Council in its approach to the assessment.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman