Summary: The Council was at fault for the time taken to deal with Mrs Y’s Disabled Facilities Grant and for how it handled Mr X’s complaint about this. As a result, Mrs Y will have to wait longer for adaptations. The Council agreed to apologise to Mrs Y, make a payment to her for the delay and take necessary action to reduce its backlog of Disabled Facilities Grant cases.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council delayed in processing his mother’s, Mrs Y’s, application for a Disabled Facilities Grant for adaptations to her bathroom. As a result of this delay, she cannot wash properly.

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What I have and have not investigated

2. I have not investigated matters Mr X raised prior to July 2022 as these relate to interactions he had with Hampshire County Council.

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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 an injustice, we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), 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. As part of this investigation, I considered the information provided by Mr X and discussed the complaint with him over the telephone. I made enquiries with the Council and considered the information received in response. I sent a draft of this decision to Mr X and the Council for comments.

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What I found

Disabled Facilities Grants

6. Disabled Facilities Grants (DFGs) are provided under the terms of the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996. There is also detailed guidance on good practice called Home Adaptations for Disabled People.
7. Councils have a statutory duty to give grants to disabled people for certain adaptations. Before approving a grant, a council must be satisfied the work is necessary, meets the disabled person’s needs, and is reasonable and practicable.
8. The maximum grant payable by a council is £30,000. A council can award other discretionary help if it thinks it is necessary.
9. A council should decide a grant application as soon as reasonably practicable. This must be within six months of the application. If a council refuses a grant, it must explain why. 
10. The guidance has set performance targets for councils to achieve DFG which it says the Council should aim to achieve in 95% of its adaptations.
11. This is split in three stages:
• Stage 1: initial enquiry to OT recommendation.
• Stage 2: OT recommendation to approval of grant.
• Stage 3: Approval of grant to completion of works.
12. The timescales for urgent adaptations are:
• Stage 1 (5 working days), stage 2 (30 working days) and stage 3 (20 working days
13. The timescales for non-urgent adaptations are:
• Stage 1 (20 working days), stage 2 (50 working days) and stage 3 (80 working days

What happened

14. On 7 July 2022, the Council received a referral from the Occupational Therapist at the County Council for adaptations to Mrs Y’s bathroom. The Occupational Therapist made recommendations to convert Mrs Y’s bathroom into a wet room with a corner shower area and a seating area in the shower.
15. On 8 July 2022, the Council wrote to Mrs Y and said it received a referral from the County Council Occupational Therapist to provide a DFG for a bathroom adaptation. The Council also told Mrs Y her case had been referred to an officer who would visit her and draw up a list of works to her bathroom. The Council said the demand for DFGs was high and it would be unlikely that the officer would be in contact for three months. The Council also sent Mrs Y a preliminary test of resources form to complete so it could consider her income and savings.
16. On 10 August 2022, Mr X contacted the Council for an update. Mr X said he was initially cut off on the telephone. When he did manage to speak with someone Mr X said they told him someone would have to call him back and he could not speak to a manager about the DFG. As a result, Mr X said he raised a formal complaint with the Council about the delay in the DFG process.
17. Mr X received a call back from the Council officer dealing with Mrs Y’s DFG application. Mr X said the officer told him Mrs Y’s case was number 25 of 28 on the waiting list.
18. On 23 August 2022, the Council provided Mr X with its stage one response. The Council said it has no involvement with the assessment from the County Council and sometimes this can take a long time to complete. The Council said since the Covid 19 pandemic DFG case numbers have risen significantly and it is taking the Council longer to see all of those residents who need assistance. The Council said it would be in contact with Mr X as soon as possible to proceed with the application.
19. Mr X responded to the Council on 24 August 2022. Mr X said he wanted the Council to consider his complaint at stage two as he did not consider the Council had fully investigated it. Mr X also raised concerns about the Council’s complaint handling. Mr X said no one spoke to him before providing a response and the contact details of the person he needed to ask to consider the complaint at stage two were not provided. Mr X also said he had not been provided with the Ombudsman’s contact details.
20. On 24 August 2022, the Council acknowledged Mr X’s request to have his complaint considered at stage two. On 7 September 2022, Mr X contacted the officer dealing with his stage two complaint and asked if they could contact him to discuss his outstanding concerns. Mr X sent a follow up email on 29 September 2022 as he had not received a response from the Council.
21. On 6 October 2022, Mr X received an email from another Council officer telling him they were investigating his stage two complaint as they had replaced the previous officer.
22. On 14 November 2022, the Council provided Mr X with its stage two response. The Council said:
• The team dealing with the administration of DFGs have had an exceptionally high volume of cases which has caused a delay in determining Mrs Y’s application. The Council apologised for the inconvenience caused.
• It had no evidence that it had not followed its policy and does not uphold Mr X’s complaint.
23. Mr X remained dissatisfied and complained to the Ombudsman. Mr X said the delay in progressing the DFG application has impacted Mrs Y as she is unable to wash properly in her current bathroom as she cannot access the bath or have carers wash her in the sink.
24. In response to my enquiries the Council said it contacted Mr X on 13 December 2022 to update him with Mrs Y’s case. The Council confirmed it arranged to visit Mrs Y on 18 January 2023 with a view to view the house and draft a schedule of works. Mr X has since confirmed the Council visited Mrs Y on 18 January 2023.
25. The Council has sent Mr X the schedule of works but Mr X said this has to be finalised.

Analysis

Disabled Facilities Grant

26. The Council received the Occupational Therapy referral for Mrs Y in July 2022 and acknowledged she wanted to apply for a DFG. At this stage the Council told Mrs Y it would unlikely be able to visit her home for three months. It took until 18 January 2023 for the Council to visit Mrs Y’s home with a view to draw up a schedule of works. Mrs Y has spent 6 months on a waiting list to start the application process. This is fault.
27. The good practice guidance says Council’s should aim to complete the process of receiving an Occupational Therapy referral to approval of the grant within 50 working days for non-urgent referrals. The Council has missed this target and should have approved Mrs Y’s grant by September 2022. As a result, Mrs Y will ultimately have to wait longer than she should have for adaptations to her bathroom.
28. The Council has said it has high demand for DFGs and is working its way through a backlog caused by the COVID 19 pandemic by allocating more resources. While this is welcomed Mrs Y has still suffered injustice for the delay in processing her DFG. Mrs Y has not been able to use her shower facilities as she cannot get her legs over the bath. She is also unable to wash in the bathroom sink as there is not enough room for a carer to wash her. Therefore, she has to use the kitchen sink which is near a window where there is limited privacy.
29. We have published guidance to explain how we calculate remedies for people who have suffered injustice as a result of fault by a council. Our primary aim is to put people back in the position they would have been in if the fault by the Council had not occurred.
30. Where a complainant has been deprived of modifications which would have improved their daily life, we would usually recommend a remedy payment in the range of £150 to £350 a month. In determining the appropriate figure, we consider the impact on the complainant and take account of factors such as:
• the extent of the adaptations needed;
• the particular circumstances of the person requiring adaptations; and
• the adequacy of current or interim arrangements.
31. In this instance we consider a payment of £300 is appropriate.

Complaint handling

32. The Council was at fault for how it handled Mr X’s complaint. Its stage one response did not provide the contact details of the person he would need to escalate the complaint to. The Council also delayed in providing its stage two response to Mr X. The Council should have provided this to Mr X in August 2022 but it did not respond to Mr X’s complaint until November 2022.
33. Mr X spent time chasing a response from the Council in September 2022 and had to wait longer to bring his complaint to the Ombudsman. This is an injustice.

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Agreed action

34. Within one month of my final decision the Council agreed to carry out the following:
• Apologise for the delay in progressing Mrs Y’s DFG application and for the fault in complaint handling.
• Pay Mr X, for the benefit of Mrs Y, £1,200, being £300 for each month of delay in processing her DFG application.
• Pay Mr X £100 in recognition of his avoidable time and trouble in pursuing this.
• Take whatever action is necessary to reduce the backlog of DFG cases and report back to the Ombudsman with the steps the Council will take to reduce the backlog.
35. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Final decision

36. I have completed my investigation and found the Council was at fault for the delays in dealing with Mrs Y’s DFG. This caused injustice. The Council agreed to the above actions to remedy the injustice caused.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman