Summary: Mr B complained that the Council stopped his care. The Council did not meet Mr B’s needs and this was wrong. This meant he did not have the care he needed. The Council will say sorry to Mr B and make a payment to him.

The complaint

1. Mr B complains that the Council stopped his care suddenly. He says the Council did not take account of safeguarding concerns. Mr B also complains that the Social Worker shouted at him and called him a fraudster.
2. Mr B went without care for 3 months. He says he cannot cook his dinner and has to have takeaways. He needed help to move house. He says that he has not been able to go to different places without help.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have called these ‘fault’. We also find out how this affected the person and we can suggest the Council takes action to put this right.
4. If we are satisfied that the Council will take action we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement.

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How I considered this complaint

5. I read the information provided by Mr B and talked to him about what happened. I read the information provided by the Council. I also considered the law. Mr B and the Council were able to comment on a draft of this statement. I have taken into account all the comments I received.

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What I found

The law and guidance

Safeguarding

6. A council must make enquiries if it thinks a person may be at risk of abuse or neglect and has care needs which mean the person cannot protect themself. A council must also decide whether it or someone else should do something to protect the person from abuse.

Care Act Assessment

7. The Council must assess an adult if it looks like they need care and support.
• The assessment must be of the person’s needs.
• It must look at their wellbeing and what they want to do.
• It must involve the person and anyone else they want to be there for the assessment.

What happened

8. Mr B had care. He had 7 hours per week to help with making meals, admin (including getting rehoused), housework and going to the shops and appointments.
9. At that time, Mr B lived in a shared house. In August 2023, Mr B told the Council he was attacked by another resident. He said this had happened before and he was being bullied.
10. The Council met with Mr B. He says that the social worker told him he should not be getting the care. He says the social worker was rude to him and called him a fraudster.
11. The police had visited Mr B and the other man. The Council spoke to the police. The police were not going to take any more action.
12. The Council spoke to the carers. They said that Mr B could get to the shops himself and make a simple meal. He sometimes cancelled care. He went out with carers to help him get to places.
13. The Council decided it would assess Mr B’s needs again to see what help he needed.
14. In May 2024, the Council assessed Mr B’s care needs. The assessment says:
• Mr B had difficulty saying some words.
• Mr B had memory problems.
• Mr B could not always understand things said to him.
• But Mr B could give all the information the Council needed.
• Mr B needed help to go to unfamiliar places or plan social activities.
15. The Council decided that Mr B did not need carers to help. The Council stopped his care in June. It said it was not clear whether Mr B had been diagnosed with a learning disability.
16. In June, the Learning Disability Team started an assessment to see if Mr B had a learning disability and how this affected his ability to do everyday things.
17. There were more problems with the other resident at the house:
• Mr B’s doctor told the Council that the resident had threatened him again.
• The Learning Disability Team and Mr B’s dad told the Council that they thought Mr B was being bullied in the house.
• Each time the Council decided that as Mr B had no care needs, he could go to the police with these problems. He could also contact housing for help to move.
18. Mr B complained to the Council that it had stopped his care.
• He said he needed the care to help him get somewhere else to live.
• He said it was hard to make meals without the carers and he could not get to places unless he knew the way well.
• He said the social worker had been rude to him.
19. The Council response said it had followed the right process and Mr B did not need the care anymore. The Council said it would ask the housing department if it could help him get moved.
20. The Council did not say anything about the social worker.
21. Mr B’s learning disability assessment was completed in August. It said:
• there had been concerns about Mr B’s development from a very young age and he had gone to a special school.
• He has a learning disability.
• He has an extremely low working memory.
• He has problems working things out.
• He needs help to learn new things.
22. The Council assessed Mr B care needs again in September. The new assessment said:
• It can now understand how his learning disability affects him.
• Mr B has significant problems in a number of areas.
• He can learn with the right approach.
• The Council will give him care. This will help him learn how to do things for himself.
23. Mr B moved to a new council property in September 2024.

Findings

Safeguarding

24. There was no fault in how the Council dealt with the safeguarding issues. The Council followed the process. It spoke with Mr B, the police, his doctor and his care provider to decide whether or not it needed to do anything.

Mr B’s complaint that the social worker was rude to him

25. Mr B says that the social worker was rude to him and shouted. The social worker says this did not happen. I have looked at the notes of the meeting but I cannot say whether this happened or not.

The Council’s decision to stop Mr B’s care

26. The Council stopped Mr B’s care from the middle of June to the middle of September. The Council was wrong to do this.
27. It is for the Council to assess Mr B’s care needs and decide how these are met. The Council:
• took into account that the care provider said that Mr B cancelled care and could shop for himself.
• looked at the safeguarding information.
• asked Mr B questions about how he could do things.
28. My decision is that the Council was wrong to stop Mr B’s care:
• I can see that it was important for the Council to understand Mr B’s learning disability more. It could then give Mr B the right kind of care.
• The diagnosis itself is not needed to find out whether he has care needs.
• The new assessment shows that he still had care needs. Mr B had no care to help him with these in the meantime.
• Mr B’s care needs have not changed. The way the Council meets these needs has changed.
• The Council could have reduced the care while it waited for the learning disability assessment to make sure that Mr B could manage.
• The Council could have had a clear plan to review how Mr B was managing without the care.
• The Council said that Mr B could get to places by himself but did not say how he would manage that.
29. The Council’s failure to meet Mr B’s care needs from mid-June to mid-September, is fault. This caused Mr B distress and uncertainty. It meant he did not have the support he needed.

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Action

30. The Council has agreed it will within one month of the date of this decision:
• Say sorry to Mr B. We publish guidance on remedies which sets out our expectations for how organisations should apologise effectively to remedy injustice. The organisation should consider this guidance in making the apology I have recommended in my findings.
• Make a symbolic payment of £300 to Mr B in respect of the distress and uncertainty caused to him by the missed care.
31. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Decision

32. I have found fault causing injustice. The Council has agreed to take action to put things right.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman