East Sussex County Council (24 016 414)
Category : Adult care services > Other
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 05 Mar 2025
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint the Council failed to support her with a grant for a new cooker. There is not enough evidence of fault to justify our involvement.
The complaint
- Miss X complained the Council did not help her after she told it her cooker had broken. She said she asked the Council for a grant to replace her cooker, but the Council told her it was not its responsibility to help her.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide:
- there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
- any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- In its complaint response, the Council explained Miss X did not receive support from adult social care and did not have care and support needs. Therefore, when she contacted it for support, it directed her to an advice centre. Given Miss X was not assessed as needing support from the Council, we would not be critical of it signposting her to an alternative organisation for support.
- The Council subsequently made a referral to a charity after Miss X reported the advice centre could not help her. That charity agreed to give Miss X a grant to buy a new cooker.
- We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about the Council. There is not enough evidence of fault in how the Council dealt with the initial request for support to justify our involvement. In addition Miss X had been awarded a grant for a new cooker, therefore, there is no outstanding injustice that requires our involvement.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault to justify our involvement.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman