Summary: Mrs X complained on behalf of her son, Mr Y about the way the Council dealt with his day service. The Council failed to provide a day service for Mr Y and there was inadequate communication about this matter. This caused distress, uncertainty and frustration to Mrs X and Mr Y. The Council has already apologised for this and offered a payment, it will also take action to address the issue of the day service.

The complaint

1. Mrs X, complains on behalf of her son, Mr Y, that the Council excluded Mr Y from his day service without explanation and then took too long to reinstate this service. Mrs X also complains she has asked the Council for minutes of meetings to be shared however these have not been provided.
2. Mrs X says Mr Y has been unable to attend the day service which she says has impacted on his mental health, social skills, communication, and has resulted in regression. Mrs X says Mr Y is also confused about why he is unable to go to the day service.

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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. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
4. We may investigate complaints from the person affected by the complaint issues, or from someone else if they have given their consent. If the person affected cannot give their consent, we may investigate a complaint from a person we decide is a suitable representative. (section 26A or 34C, Local Government Act 1974)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I have considered the information Mrs X and the Council provided.
6. Mrs X and the Council had the opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered these comments before making a final decision.

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What I found

Legislation and guidance

Assessment

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. Councils 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.

Care Plan

9. 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.

Preventative duties

10. The Care Act 2014 says when carrying out its care and support functions for an adult, councils must promote the well-being of the individual. A key focus is on preventing or delaying needs and therefore the need for care and support. This means supporting an individual to prevent their needs escalating so that they can keep well and independent, or aiming to reduce needs and help individuals regain skills.

Summary of key events

11. Mr Y is autistic and has a number of other diagnoses. He lives with his parents and a sibling.
12. The Council completed an adult social care needs assessment with Mr Y in October 2022. The Council said Mr Y had an eligible need which he needed support with to be able to engage in work, training, education or volunteering. To meet this need, the Council commissioned a day service for him to attend two days per week. This was later reduced to one day per week.
13. The day service contacted a director within the Council on 25 May 2023, asking for a fee increase for all services it commissioned with them, this included Mr Y’s day service place. The day service asked for an increase of 152% on Mr Y’s daily fee. The Council said it could not agree to this without a negotiation.
14. The Council’s commissioning team then became involved. However, as no agreement was made with the funding, the day service told the Council’s commissioning team on 4 October the contract for Mr Y would end on 6 December. It told the Council it would need to agree to the fee increase to avoid termination.
15. During the same time as the fee discussions, Mrs X was also raising concerns about Mr Y’s dietary and allergy needs while attending the day service. The day service put in place a risk assessment about this. However, Mrs X was reporting to the day service and the Council that Mr Y was still becoming unwell after attending, despite the measures being put in place following the risk assessment.
16. Mrs X made a complaint to the Council on 3 November. She said she had just received a letter from the day service dated 8 September 2023. This told Mrs X that Mr Y’s contract would be terminated because there was a shortfall in funding that the Council was unwilling to cover.
17. Mrs X asked why she was only being told now when the Council had known about this for several months. Mrs X also requested copies of all minutes of meetings that had taken place where the Council and day service had discussed Mr Y.
18. On the 8 November, a social worker from the Council contacted the day service to ask if Mr Y had been excluded. They said that Mrs X’s letter was the first the social work team had heard about this. The social worker asked how much the Council owed the day service as she would like to arrange for the Council to pay this.
19. The day service responded the following day. It said that it was unlikely to withdraw the notice as there were some issues with Mr Y’s allergies.
20. On 22 November, Mrs X and two social workers from the Council had a meeting. Mrs X said she was unhappy with Mr Y’s exclusion from the day service. She also raised other concerns about the day services’ ability to manage Mr Y’s allergies. During the meeting, it was agreed the social worker would follow up on the funding issue and contract cancellation and explore alternative day services.
21. Following the meeting, a social worker emailed the day service. They said that nobody from the day service had contacted the team to let them know they wanted to increase Mr Y’s fees. The social worker asked the day service to review its decision and allow Mr Y to continue to attend.
22. The day service responded the following day. It apologised the information had not reached the social work team, as it had been discussing this with the Council’s commissioning team for several months. The day service said it would be happy for Mr Y to continue to attend if the Council agreed to the increased fees.
23. Internal Council correspondence from a senior commissioner to a social worker explains that the day service had miscalculated the fee increase for Mr Y’s placement and had now submitted revised rates which the Council considered more acceptable. However, it said it was still considering these rates.
24. On 6 December, Mr Y attended his last session at the day service.
25. The Council responded to and upheld Mrs X’s complaint on 20 December. It apologised and said the Council should have sought to resolve the issues with the day service in a more timely manner to avoid putting Mr Y’s placement at risk.
26. The complaint response said the day service was willing to reverse the decision to end Mr Y’s placement if the Council agreed to the increase in fees.
27. The Council said that Mrs X could have a copy of the minutes, however asked her to send a subject access request to ask for this formally.
28. The Council also said it had identified service improvements following this complaint and specifically there was a need for more effective inter-departmental communication between the commissioning team and the social work team. This could enable social workers to put interim measures in place to safeguard care packages.
29. The letter said the social worker would update Mrs X when the commissioning team had decided on the fee increase.
30. On 18 January 2024, the Council contacted the day centre and confirmed the Council had agreed the fee increase. It asked if Mr Y could now return to the day service. The day service explained that Mr Y could not return at this time as there were potential safeguarding concerns about Mr Y’s allergies. They said his case would need to be discussed at an internal risk panel before it could decide if Mr Y could return.
31. On 27 February, the day service told the Council that it had discussed Mr Y’s case at the panel meeting and decided it could not manage his allergies safely. The day service said if these issues could be resolved it would welcome further discussions about Mr Y returning.
32. The Council said that neither the Council or the day service shared this information with Mrs X due to a misunderstanding between the Council and the day service.
33. On 16 April, the Council emailed Mrs X a copy of the meeting minutes from November 2023. It apologised for the delay in sending these but did not provide a reason for this.
34. On 11 June, the Council completed an adult social care needs assessment with Mr Y. The Council again said Mr Y had an eligible need to receive support to enable him to engage in work, training, education or volunteering. To meet this need, the Council said it would explore a new day provision for him to attend.
35. On 18 June, Mrs X told the Council she had explored another day service, but their policy seemed the same as the previous one about allergies and that Mr Y does not have any friends there. Mrs X told the Council that as Mr Y’s deputy, she will help Mr Y decide on what activities he would like to do in the future.
36. The Council wrote to Mrs X on 4 July, it apologised for the delay in dealing with Mr Y’s day service arrangements. The Council offered to pay £350 to her to recognise the time, frustration and stress caused.
37. The Council also wrote to Mr Y on the same day to apologise and offered a separate payment of £350 for not finding alternative day service arrangements for him.
38. In response to my enquiries, the Council said in July, that it is still looking for a day service for Mr Y, however because of his allergies they are not able to fulfil this requirement. They added that it will continue to look for a suitable day service.

Analysis

Communication around day service

39. The Council has already acknowledged there has been poor communication about Mr Y’s day service placement.
40. This includes poor internal communication between the Council’s commissioning team and the social work team. The commissioning team failed to discuss Mr Y’s contract being at risk with the social work team and it took five months for the social worker to become aware of this issue.
41. The Council has identified service improvements for more effective inter-departmental communication between the commissioning team and the social work team which I welcome.
42. The Council has already apologised to Mrs X and Mr Y for poor communication. The Council has also offered to make a payment of £350 each to recognise the time, frustration and stress caused. I do consider this to be a sufficient remedy.

Provision of day service

43. I have seen a copy of two care plans which say that Mr Y has an eligible need which can be met by a day service provision. However, despite this, Mr Y has not attended a day service provision since 6 December 2023.
44. The Council informed the day service of its decision about funding on 18 January 2024 and at that point asked about Mr Y returning. On 27 February, the day service told the Council they could not manage Mr Y’s allergies safely and this issue would need to be resolved before Mr Y could return. The Council is still looking for a suitable day service that can accommodate Mr Y’s allergies.
45. I acknowledge that it can take time to source appropriate placements, particularly as Mrs X says Mr Y has complex allergies. Although there is no specific time set out in the Care Act, we would normally expect this to be arranged within a month so the delay is fault and has caused distress to Mrs X.
46. This has also caused Mr Y significant distress, as he cannot understand why he is unable to attend a day service and socialise. Mrs X also says this has caused a decline in Mr Y’s mental health and a regression in his behaviours.
47. In line with The Care Act 2014, the Council has not supported Mr Y in its preventative duties and since December 2023, Mr Y will have missed approximately 216 hours of support.
48. The Council has already offered to make a payment of £350 to Mr Y for not finding alternative day service arrangements for him. I welcome this offer but the Council also needs to provide a solution so I will suggest a further remedy for this.

Meeting minutes

49. Mrs X requested copies of meeting minutes in November 2023. The Council sent Mrs X a copy of these minutes in April 2024 and apologised for the delay. I consider an apology to be an appropriate remedy for this fault. If Mrs X is unhappy about how personal information was handled, she should complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office as they are the relevant body who deal with complaints about data protection matters.

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Agreed action

50. Within one month of my final decision the Council will:

• develop an action plan for providing future day care provision to Mr Y and if not possible, consider whether anything else can be offered to Mr Y in the meantime.

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

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Final decision

52. I have completed my investigation with a finding of fault causing injustice.

Investigator’s final decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman