Summary: The Council failed to establish Ms X’s care needs before deciding she did not need a two-bedroom property. This is fault. The Council has agreed to apologise, assess Ms X’s needs, and pay her £250 to remedy the injustice caused.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains the Council did not assess her as needing two-bedroom accommodation when it reviewed her application to the housing register.
2. Ms X also says the Council took too long to review the decision.
3. Ms X says she needs overnight care and that currently her carer has to sleep on the sofa.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. 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)
5. If we are satisfied with a council’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)

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

6. I spoke to Ms X about the complaint.
7. I made written enquiries of the Council and considered its response along with relevant law, guidance, and its allocations policy.
8. I referred to the Ombudsman’s Guidance on Remedies, a copy of which can be found on our website.
9. Ms X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments received before making a final decision.

Back to top

What I found

Council’s allocations scheme

10. Every local housing authority must publish an allocations scheme that sets out how it prioritises housing applicants, and its procedures for allocating properties.  All allocations must be made in strict accordance with the published scheme. (Housing Act 1996, section 166A(1) & (14))
11. Priority band: The Council places applicants who qualify to join the housing register in a priority band from Band 1 (highest priority) to Band 4 (lowest priority). This priority is the first factor the Council uses to allocate a property.
12. Band 2: So far as is relevant to this complaint, the Council awards Band 2 where:
• the applicant’s medical or disability needs mean their housing is unsuitable. This includes applicants who are not housebound or whose life is not at risk, but whose current housing is directly impacting their health.
• an applicant needs to move in order to give or receive ongoing care and support.
13. Bedroom entitlement: The Council applies the bedroom standard to decide what size property an applicant needs. The bedroom standard says a separate bedroom shall be required for:
1. Two persons living together as a couple
2. A person aged 21 years or more
3. Two persons of the same sex aged 10 years to 20 years
4. Two persons (whether the same sex or not) aged less than 10 years
5. Two persons of the same sex where one is aged between 10 years and 20 years and the other is aged less than 10 years
6. Any person under 21 years in any case where he or she cannot be paired with another occupier of the dwelling so as to fall within c), d), or e) above.
14. Exceptions to the bedroom entitlement: So far as is relevant to this complaint, the Council’s allocations scheme says:

“When determining the size of property for which applicants are eligible, the bedroom standard will usually be applied. However, there may be exceptions to this. Examples are:

• Applicants who need the support of a carer who will be required to sleep in the property and cannot reasonably be expected to share a bedroom with other members of the household.”

What happened

15. Ms X is a Council tenant. She lives in a one-bedroom property.
16. In 2019, the Council assessed Ms X’s care and support needs. She did not qualify for any financial help to meet the cost of her care. Ms X therefore self-funds her care.
17. Ms X applied to join the Council’s housing register on the basis that she needs to move for health reasons. In her application, Ms X said she needed a two-bedroom property because she has a carer who stays overnight.
18. An Occupational Therapist (OT) assessed Ms X at home in January 2020. This assessment was to consider whether Ms X needed a property with adaptations.
19. The Council considered Ms X’s application in February. It awarded Band 2 for reasons of health and welfare. It said she was eligible for one-bedroom properties.
20. Ms X asked the Council for a review of this decision in February 2020. The Council completed the review in July. The review said that it did not consider Ms X needed an extra bedroom because:

“there are many households who have persons stay over and they make temporary provision for them when this occurs…In your situation an extra bedroom is not considered to be essential because temporary arrangements can be made.”

My findings

Bedroom entitlement

21. Ms X says she pays a carer to stay overnight every night and that currently her carer must sleep on the sofa.
22. In its review decision, the Council quotes in full the section of its allocations policy which sets out the bedroom standard. It makes no reference to the separate section of the policy, quoted above at paragraph 14, which deals with exceptions. Given Ms X said she needed overnight care, this was the relevant part of the policy to her case. There is no evidence the Council had regard to this section of the policy when making the decision. This is fault.
23. In response to my enquiries, the Council says it based its decision on whether Ms X needed this overnight care, and so an extra bedroom, on the OT assessment from January 2020. However, this assessment was solely to consider whether Ms X needed an adapted property. The OT did not complete a social care assessment or establish what Ms X’s care needs were. Reliance on this report was fault.
24. The most recent care and support needs assessment in the Council’s records is from 2019. Ms X is a self-funder. Therefore, there is no duty for the Council to keep her care and support needs under review.
25. Although there is no indication in the 2019 assessment that Ms X needs overnight care, her needs may well have changed in the intervening three years. The Council should have asked for a new assessment to enable it to determine whether the bedroom size exception in its policy applied to Ms X. Failure to do so was fault.
26. I cannot say whether Ms X needs a second bedroom. However, the Council failed properly to establish her needs before deciding about her bedroom entitlement and failed to refer to the correct part of its policy in its review decision. There is uncertainty about whether the Council would have reached a different decision were it not for these faults. This uncertainty is an injustice to Ms X.

Delay

27. The Council’s allocations policy says it will complete reviews in 56 days. In Ms X’s case, it took the Council five months. This is a delay of three months. This is fault.
28. In response to my enquiries, the Council said this delay was “caused by the high volume of review requests received.” The Council accepts there is a problem and says it is “in the process of a service redesign” to address this.
29. The Council’s delay completing the review caused Ms X avoidable frustration and time and trouble. This is an injustice to Ms X.

Back to top

Agreed action

30. To remedy the injustice to Ms X from the faults I have identified, the Council has agreed to:
• Apologise to Ms X.
• Complete an assessment of whether Ms X needs overnight care and support, and, if appropriate, amend her bedroom entitlement accordingly.
• Pay Ms X £250
31. The Council should take this action within four weeks of my final decision.
32. The Council will also take the following action to improve its services:
• Remind relevant staff to ensure decision letters refer to or set out the relevant parts of the allocations policy which apply to the case.
• Remind relevant staff to base decisions on up-to-date information. Where this is not available, the Council should ask for a new assessment to determine housing need.
33. The Council should take this action within eight weeks of my final decision.

Back to top

Final decision

34. I have completed my investigation. There is fault by the Council. The action I have recommended is a suitable remedy for the injustice caused.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman