Summary: Ms X complains the Council have not dealt with a Disabled Facilities Grant properly. There was service failure by the Council because it took too long to approve the Disabled Facilities Grant application. The Council should apologise, pay Ms X £450 and provide guidance to staff.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Ms X, complains the Council has not dealt properly with a Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) in a timely manner:
2. Ms X says her family has suffered distress and uncertainty.

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What I have and have not investigated

3. I have investigated that part of Ms X’s complaint about how the Council has dealt with a DFG application from February 2023.
4. I have not investigated earlier events including an earlier DFG application because this is out of time.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

5. 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)
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)
7. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

8. I spoke to Mr X about his complaint and considered documents he provided. I made enquiries of the Council and considered its response and the supporting documents it provided.
9. Mr X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments received before making a final decision.

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What I found

10. The maximum permitted DFG grant is £30,000. Councils are also able to top this up on a discretionary basis to a maximum of £100,000.
11. The council is statutorily obliged to approve valid mandatory DFG applications within six months. The council aims to approve applications within 30 days of them being determined as complete and valid.
12. In the case of discretionary DFG’s, the council aims for the same timeframe as above but mandatory DFG’s may take preference if the council needs to consider how to make best use of its available resources.

What happened?

13. This is a brief chronology of key events. It does not contain everything I reviewed during my investigation.
14. An initial referral was made for Ms X for a DFG in February 2023. A site visit was made in February with both the Council and Hampshire County Council (HCC) and a plan for the scheme (plan A) was developed.
15. Hampshire County Council (Children’s Services) requested that an alternative scheme (plan B) be considered.
16. In September 2024 the Council agreed that plan A was most suitable for Ms X.
17. The DFG application was finally approved in May 2024.

Analysis

18. Ms X’s scheme (plan A) cost greater than £100,000. The Council sought additional finding from Hampshire Children’s Services in order to be able to complete plan A.
19. I have reviewed extensive email and documentary evidence from the Council in relation to communications between all parties involved. This shows that:
• There was a delay while an alternative scheme was considered, at the requests of Hampshire County Council. The agreement of Hampshire County Council was necessary as the delivery of the full DFG scheme depended upon additional funding being provided. This is not fault by the Council.
• At the end of September, scheme of work plans and costings were sent to Hampshire County Council for consideration of their funding panel for costs exceeding £100,000.
• Hampshire Childrens Services responded in November 2023 agreeing to provide £65,000 worth of funding. There was a delay of 5 weeks while the Council waited for a response from Hampshire County Council about whether it would provide the additional funding required for the scheme. This was not excessive. This is not fault by the Council.
• Between September and November (6 weeks) the Council did not chase Hampshire County Council for any response regarding the additional funding.
• Due to the length of time between the original quote submission in July and funding decision by Hampshire County Council the costs for the project had risen and the project costs needed to be updated.
• There was a delay while updated costs were obtained, following Hampshire County Council’s agreement to provide additional funding. The original quotes for works expired in December 2023. This is not fault by the Council.
• Updated costs for the project were submitted at the end of January 2024. Hampshire County Council were notified the same day that the project would need additional funding from them to meet the new cost of works.
• Hampshire Childrens Services responded at the end of April 2024 agreeing to provide the necessary extra funding.
• There was a delay of 3 months between January and April 2024 while the Council waited for a response from Hampshire County Council about whether it would provide the increased additional funding required for the scheme. This was avoidable. However, the Council did repeatedly chase Hampshire County Council for a response. This is not fault by the Council.
20. Ms X’s DFG application took from 10 July 2023 to 30 May 2024 to be approved. This is approximately 10 and a half months. The Council’s DFG policy, as outlined in paragraphs 8 and 9 above, shows that the Council should have approved Ms X’s DFG application within 6 months.
21. There was therefore a delay of four and a half months. The delays to finalising Ms X’s DFG application were primarily due to Hampshire County Council (Children’s Services). However, this is service failure. Ms X had to wait longer than she should have for her DFG application to be approved.

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Agreed action

22. To remedy the outstanding injustice caused by the fault I have identified, the Council has agreed to take the following action within 4 weeks of this decision:
• Apologise to Ms X for the delays to completing the DFG application. 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 Ms X £450 in respect of uncertainty and distress, a symbolic rate of £100 for each month of delay.
23. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Final decision

24. I have found service failure by the Council causing injustice to Ms X. I have now completed my investigation.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman