• The complaint
• The Ombudsman’s role and powers
• What I have and have not investigated
• How I considered this complaint
• What I found
• Agreed action
• Final decision

The Ombudsman's final decision:

Summary: Mrs Q complains the Council delayed referring her daughter for an Adult Social Care assessment, in the time before her 18th birthday. And when it did make the referral it did not tell them and delayed responding to her contacts. We uphold the complaint. The Council has agreed to our recommendations.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Miss Q, is being represented by her mother, Mrs Q. They complain:
   • the Council delayed making a referral to its Adult Social Care Transitions Team as Miss Q neared her 18th birthday;
   • the Council did not inform the family when it did make referrals;
   • the Council delayed responding to their questions about the referrals;
   • the Transitions Team delayed contacting them and carrying out an assessment.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)
3. 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)
4. Under our information sharing agreement, we will share this decision with the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted).

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What I have and have not investigated

5. Mrs Q complains about two periods when the Council did not act on referrals. The Ombudsman has considered the first period in an earlier investigation, in relation to issues relating to Mrs Q. Having reviewed the evidence from that period, I see no issues specific to Miss Q that merit further investigation. So I have confined my investigation to the second period.

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How I considered this complaint

6. The information I have seen includes the documents Mrs Q supplied with her complaint and the Council’s responses to the Ombudsman’s enquires. I sent my draft decision to Mrs Q and the Council and invited their comments.

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What I found

Legal and administrative background

Transition from children to adult care services

7. When a child reaches 18 years old, they are legally an adult. Responsibility for meeting their needs moves from a council’s children services to its adult services. The legal basis for assessing their needs changes from the Children Act 1989 to the Care Act 2014.
8. Statutory guidance says transition assessments should begin when a council can be reasonably confident about what the young person’s needs for care and support will look like when they turn 18.

Care Act assessments

9. 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. 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.
10. 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.
11. Where somebody provides or intends to provide care for another adult and it appears the carer may have needs for support, the council must carry out a carer’s assessment.

What happened

Background

12. Miss Q was due to reach her 18th birthday in August 2023. She has multiple care needs, disabilities and has special educational needs, met through an Education, Health and Care Plan. The Council’s Children and Young People’s Service was not providing Miss Q with any care or support. Mrs Q has her own disabilities.
13. In February 2022 a healthcare practitioner made a referral to the Council around Mrs Q’s and Miss Q’s wellbeing. There was some debate between Council teams about which team might carry out an assessment. This discussion continued over the next few months.
14. In September 2022 the Council’s Family Assessment & Intervention Team offered to carry out a Child and Family Assessment. Mrs Q declined that offer, as her request was for a carer’s assessment and not for an assessment for her daughter. The Council closed its case because it could not carry out a carer’s assessment without also involving Miss Q.
15. Mrs Q complained about how the Council had handled these requests and in May 2023 the Ombudsman upheld her complaint.

The second referral to Adult Social Care

16. In January 2023 Mrs Q complained about several issues. One was that Miss Q would be 18 in around six months and they had no idea how she would be supported.
17. In early February 2023 the Council’s Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Post 16 Team referred Miss Q to its Transitions Team (the latter is placed within the Council’s Adult Social Care service). The Council did not advise Mrs Q and Miss Q at the time; only doing so in April, in response to Mrs Q’s January complaint.
18. In May Mrs Q contacted the Council to advise she thought it was unprofessional to not notify the young person or parent that it had made a referral. She asked for more information about the referral.
19. Miss Q was 18 in August. Shortly after her birthday, the Council’s Transitions Team allocated her complaint.
20. In August the Council responded to Mrs Q’s complaint (see paragraph 18). It apologised its service had not informed her about the referral. It had reminded staff in its team of the importance of informing parents and carers of any progress or referrals.
21. In October a social worker from the Council’s Transitions Team first contacted Miss Q and Mrs Q. The social worker met them in an on-line meeting. They all agreed Miss Q needed a Care Act assessment. Mrs Q advised she would like to support her daughter through the Care Act assessment, so asked if she could concentrate on her carer’s assessment first. The social worker agreed to that suggestion.
22. A few days later the social worker contacted Mrs Q regarding an update on her carer’s assessment and about Miss Q having a Care Act assessment. She asked Mrs Q if she had had any discussions with Miss Q about meeting the social worker to complete an assessment. Mrs Q responded to advise she had not had any recent discussion with Miss Q about an assessment, as she was overwhelmed with everything that was going on. Mrs Q notes she also asked that Miss Q did have a Care Act assessment.
23. The Council and Miss Q carried out a Care Act assessment in January 2024. Following the assessment the Council contacted Mrs Q to advise Miss Q would need to complete a financial assessment before it could offer any services. It attached the relevant forms.
24. Later in January the Council responded to a complaint from Mrs Q. It advised it had delayed allocating Miss Q a social worker due to staff shortages in its Transition Team. It upheld that part of her complaint and apologised for “… the delay and any distress caused as a result”. The Council advised that, because of an unprecedented demand on its services, it had not been able to prioritise allocations, as quickly as it would have liked. But it had introduced a new triaging and flagging system within its Transition Team. This would ensure its duty workers could update families about how long before the team expected to allocate their applications.

25. In response to my enquiries the Council advised:
    • its process was that, as a matter of course, it brought all young people in receipt of an Education, Health and Care Plan to the attention of its Transitions Team;
    • once it had screened the referral, the Transitions Team added it to a short waiting list. So, when a young person was coming up to the age of 18, they were allocated to a social worker for an assessment;
    • the Council had found it difficult to gain access to Miss Q to assess her needs due to her and Mrs Q’s difficulties at the time, as they felt very overwhelmed. In those circumstances, it was important to complete its assessment at a time that was right for Miss Q to be able to engage fully;
    • a social worker was assisting Miss Q to develop her support plan;
    • the Council’s service had a new management structure in place. It also now had a full complement of staff. So it said it could “… say with confidence that all referrals are screened by the manager who advises the duty worker to make further enquiries if needed. The cases are prioritised in order of risk and support requirements and given a … rating to determine the order of allocation for assessment”.

Analysis

26. It is for the Council to decide when to carry out an assessment for a young person nearing their 18th birthday, at a time when it could be “reasonably confident” about what the young person’s needs for care and support will look like when they turn 18.
27. But the Council did not allocate Miss Q’s case until after her 18th birthday in August. The social worker did not then contact the family until October. I accept the Council’s comments that the family wanted a carer’s assessment first. And that at times Miss Q was not available for an assessment. But this does not change the fact the Council delayed acting on the referral, by at least four months. That delay was fault.
28. This leads to some uncertainty about whether, but for the fault, Miss Q might have had an earlier assessment.
29. There were also delays with the Council’s response to Mrs Q’s January and May 2023 complaints. These will have exacerbated the uncertainty to Mrs Q and Miss Q.

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Agreed action

30. As a remedy for the distress caused by the uncertainty in the delay in allocating a social worker and the complaint responses, the Council has agreed that, within a month of my final decision, it will:
    • apologise to Miss Q for the faults I have identified;
    • make Miss Q a symbolic payment of £450 for the distress caused by the delay in allocating her case and the delayed complaint responses.
31. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.
32. In response to Mrs Q’s complaint and my investigation, the Council has outlined steps it has taken to avoid a recurrence of the faults I have identified in this complaint. So I am not making any recommendations for service improvements.

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Final decision

33. I uphold this complaint. The Council has agreed to my recommendations, so I have completed my investigation.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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