Summary: Miss X complained the Council failed to organise care to enable her to take part in her education. She says despite the Council agreeing she required care out of the home, it refused to provide this. Miss X says this meant she struggled to study and get to university lectures, she suffered significant distress which impacted on her ability to eat properly, her health and her education. We have found fault in the actions of the Council for delaying in completing an assessment of Miss X and its failure to respond to her. The Council has agreed to issue an apology, pay Miss X a financial payment and complete service improvements.

The complaint

1. Miss X complained the Council failed to organise care to enable her to take part in her education. She says despite the Council agreeing she required care out of the home, it refused to provide this.
2. Miss X says this meant she struggled to study and get to university lectures, she suffered significant distress which impacted on her ability to eat properly, her health and her education.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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. If there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26( ), 26A(1) and 34(3) as amended)
4. 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

5. I considered evidence provided by Miss X and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
6. Miss X and the Council were invited to comment on my draft decision. I have considered any comments before making a final decision.

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What I found

7. 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.
8. Council’s 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.
9. The Care and Support Statutory Guidance sets out that a comprehensive assessment must be carried out by an appropriately trained assessor and that staff who are involved in the first contact with the person should have appropriate training to support the identification of any underlying conditions, or to ensure that complex needs are identified early.
10. The Care and Support Statutory Guidance sets out, to support the person’s involvement, the local authority should establish the individual’s communication needs and seek to adapt the assessment process accordingly. In doing so local authorities must provide information about the assessment process in advance. This includes providing the list of questions to be covered in the assessment, in an accessible format.

Care Plan

11. The Care Act 2014 gives councils a legal responsibility to provide a care and support plan. 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.

Reasonable adjustments for people with disabilities

12. The reasonable adjustment duty is set out in the Equality Act 2010 and applies to any body which carries out a public function. It aims to make sure that a disabled person can use a service as close as it is reasonably possible to get to the standard usually offered to non-disabled people.
13. Service providers are under a positive and proactive duty to take steps to remove or prevent obstacles to accessing their service. If the adjustments are reasonable, they must make them.
14. The duty is ‘anticipatory’. This means service providers cannot wait until a disabled person wants to use their services, but must think in advance about what disabled people with a range of impairments might reasonably need.

Disabled students allowance

15. The Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA) Guidance says DSA is available to contribute to the additional costs that a student is obliged to incur in relation to their studies because of their disability. DSA is intended to supplement the provision of reasonable adjustments made by the Higher Education Provider but is not available in place of the reasonable adjustments. DSA is not intended to assist with disability-related expenditure that the student would incur if they were not following their course of study, nor is it intended to cover the study costs a student may incur. Local Authority social services may well continue to provide assistance to personal care costs.

What happened

16. Miss X had a support plan in place in early 2023 which provided five 45-minute calls per week. In addition to this the Council agreed a further six hours to allow Miss X to access the swimming baths or gym twice a week.
17. In late August 2023 Miss X contacted the Council to say she was reattending University and asked for a re-assessment of her needs.
18. The Council called Miss X’s representative the following day. They explained Miss X would need extra time with her Personal Assistant (PA) to allow her to attend University. The Council said a social worker would need to be allocated to the matter.
19. Miss X chased the Council for a response in late September and early October 2023.
20. The Council said it called Miss X in early October but could not get through.
21. Miss X and her representative contacted the Council several times in October and November 2023 to ask for an update.
22. The Councils notes say a social worker was allocated to Miss X’s matter in early November 2023 and a home visit was arranged for the end of November 2023.
23. During the home visit Miss X asked for extra hours for swimming and University. The notes from the review say Miss X told the Council she needed extra time for swimming as the bus sometimes ran late which meant her PA was providing extra time. Miss X also said she was going to be attending University from January and needed her PA to be with her in case she had a medical issue. Miss X also said the University was not wheelchair friendly.
24. The Council recorded in its support plan and review document that it contacted the University in early December 2023 to ask if there was support for a student with a physical disability. The notes say the Council asked if there would be support available for things like opening doors and support in lectures. The University told the Council if a student required support for their course or had a learning need it would be able to support that. The University also said students can apply for DSA to help support around their timetable.
25. The Council recorded that it told Miss X’s partner in early December that Miss X would need to apply for DSA in relation to a chaperone. Miss X’s partner told the Council that Miss X already received this and used it for transport to and from University.
26. The Council called Miss X’s partner in mid-December 2023 to say it could not fund hours for a PA to sit with Miss X in case she had a medical issue. The Council increased the hours Miss X received with her PA for swimming. Miss X’s partner asked for a call from a senior social worker and was advised they had already been consulted and had given the same advice.
27. Miss X’s partner requested a call from a senior social worker again in late December 2023. The Council said a senior social worker was aware and had given the same advice. The Council told Miss X’s partner to raise a complaint if they were unhappy.
28. The Council contacted Miss X in early February 2024 to arrange a meeting with Miss X, the Council and the University. Miss X’s partner told the Council this was unnecessary as the University was already providing all the support it could. The Council’s notes say it agreed to discuss this further with a manager.
29. Miss X’s partner chased the Council for a response in late February 2024. The Council responded the following day to repeat the advice given previously.
30. Miss X raised a complaint in March 2024 about the Council not providing care, providing incorrect information and failing to refer the matter to a senior social worker.
31. The Council issued a response to the complaint in June 2024 which upheld delays in contacting Miss X and apologised for a manager not returning requested calls. It also offered to pay backdated costs of £595.80 in relation to a short term (12 week) increase in hours to assist Miss X attending University while discussions were ongoing.
32. Miss X’s partner raised a further complaint and said the Council had not given reasons for why it would not fund extra hours and disagreed with comments made in the Council’s complaint response.
33. The Council issued a stage two response in mid-July 2024 and offered £250 for the time and trouble caused to Miss X.
34. The Council completed a new assessment in November 2024 and re-submitted a request for funding.
35. The Council declined the request for funding in mid-November 2024 because its view is the funding Miss X was requesting was the responsibility of the University and DSA.
36. Miss X’s partner provided letters from the University and DSA in November 2024, dated December 2023, stating the responsibility for funding for care needs was the Council’s.
37. The Council closed the budget request in December 2024 as it says additional funding did not relate to care needs.

Analysis

38. Miss X contacted the Council to ask for a re-assessment in late August 2023. This did not happen until the end of November 2023. The guidelines say the Council must carry out assessments over a suitable and reasonable timescale. The Council did not contact Miss X until November to arrange for a home visit to complete the assessment. This is fault.
39. Miss X and her partner chased the Council several times between September and November to try to get an update and would have been caused frustration and distress at the delay in completing the assessment.
40. Miss X’s partner requested a call back from a senior social worker or manager twice in December and did not receive a call on either occasion. This is fault and would have caused additional distress.
41. Miss X has complained the Council has failed to organise care to allow her to take part in her education. The request for additional help from the Council referred to in the notes is for help for Miss X at university in case she has a medical issue and for the University not being wheelchair friendly.
42. The Council has explained its view these are not care needs. The Council has said the University are under a duty to provide reasonable adjustments to allow Miss X to attend her course. The Council has also said Miss X could apply for DSA to fund someone to support her at university.
43. I can see the Council agreed to provide short-term funding to help Miss X access University while discussions about whether funding would be applied long-term were ongoing. However, after reviewing the information it had the Council decided it would not fund this long-term.
44. 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.
45. The Council has reviewed the information supplied by Miss X’s partner from the University and in relation to any DSA funding. However, its view remains the funding being asked for by Miss X is not a care need and as such the Council should not fund it. I cannot say there is any fault in the way the Council has reached this decision.

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Action

46. Within one month of a final decision, the Council should:

• Write to Miss X to apologise for the faults identified. 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.
• Pay Miss X £400 to recognise the distress and frustration caused to her.
• In writing, remind staff of the importance of responding to communications within a reasonable timeframe.

47. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Decision

48. I find fault causing injustice.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman