Summary: Ms A complained the Council reduced the number of hours of care it pays for without explaining this to her. She says her needs had not changed so she does not understand the cut. The Council is not at fault, as it has made a decision it is entitled to make.

The complaint

1. Ms A complains the Council changed her care arrangements without providing an explanation. She says her hours of care provided have been reduced although her circumstances have not changed.
2. Ms A says the Council has not provided a clear explanation of the support it will provide for her mental health needs.
3. Ms A says the Council’s actions has left her without enough provision for her needs, and caused confusion about what support it will provide.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

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. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word fault to refer to these. We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
6. 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 and have not investigated

7. Some issues raised by Ms A relate to the health care she has been provided. This does not fall within the Local Government Ombudsman’s jurisdiction, so has not been included in this investigation.

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How I considered this complaint

8. I considered information provided by Ms A and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
9. Ms A and the Council have had an opportunity to comment on a draft decision. I have considered comments received before making this final decision.

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What I found

Law and Guidance

10. The Care Act 2014 gives councils a legal responsibility to provide a care and support plan (or a support plan for a carer). The care and support plan should consider what needs the person has, what they want to achieve, what they can do by themselves or with existing support and what care and support may be available in the local area. When preparing a care and support plan the council must involve any carer the adult has. The support plan must include a personal budget, which is the money the council has worked out it will cost to arrange the necessary care and support for that person.
11. Direct payments are monetary payments made to individuals who ask for them to meet some or all of their eligible care and support needs. They enable people to arrange their own care and support to meet those needs. The council must ensure people have relevant and timely information about direct payments so they can decide whether to request them. If they do so, the council should support them to use and manage the payment properly.
12. Under section 117 of the Mental Health Act 1983, councils and Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) have a joint duty to provide after-care services to people who have been detained in hospital for treatment under certain sections of the 1983 Act.

What happened

13. In May 2023, Ms A was taken into hospital. When she was discharged, the Council assessed Ms A’s care and support needs.
14. The Council issued a care and support plan in May 2023 which set out Ms A’s needs, what she hoped to achieve, and how this could be achieved.
15. The plan set out that Ms A’s care needs should be met through direct payments of 12 hours a week for care to be provided by a personal assistant.
16. The Council considered Ms A’s needs again in December 2023. It noted that some time which the personal assistant was being paid for was being used to watch television with Ms A.
17. The Council issued a new care and support plan in December 2023, setting out a reduced provision of 9 hours per week of direct payments for the personal assistant. The Council called Ms A to confirm this reduction of paid care provision.
18. Ms A’s care needs were assessed again in July 2024, and the Council decided to keep the provision of 9 hours of paid care. The Council also explored other support that was available to Ms A, through telephone support agencies.
19. Ms A says those agencies are not suitable for her needs as she cannot get what she needs from strangers through telephone calls.

Analysis and Findings

20. I have seen the Council carried out care and support assessments for Ms A regularly and set out the needs it identified in a plan. It also set out how those needs would be met.
21. I have not seen any notes recording the Council explained the cut in care provision Ms A in December 2023. However, the Council carried out the assessment through a conversation with Ms A, and it confirmed the cut in direct payments by telephone call.
22. Although I have not seen notes explaining the reduction specifically, the Council set out the cut in provision in the plan, and in its telephone call with Ms A. The telephone call provided Ms A with a chance to ask any questions she had about the Council’s decision, if this was not properly explained to her.
23. The care and support plan details the needs the direct payments are intended to meet. Therefore, anything not set out in the plan is not covered.
24. Our role is not to ask whether an organisation could have done things better, or whether we agree or disagree with what it did. Instead, we look at whether there was fault in how it made its decisions. If we decide there was no fault in how it did so, we cannot ask whether it should have made a particular decision or say it should have reached a different outcome.
25. The Ombudsman is not an appeal body. This means we do not take a second look at a decision to decide if it was wrong. Instead, we look at the processes an organisation followed to make its decision. If we consider it followed those processes correctly, we cannot question whether the decision was right or wrong, regardless of whether you disagree with the decision the organisation made.
26. I have considered the steps the Council took to consider the issue, and the information it took account of when deciding to reduce Ms A’s care provision. There is no fault in how it took the decision, and I therefore cannot question whether that decision was right or wrong.

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Decision

27. We found no fault.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman