Summary: The Council delayed assessing Miss B’s housing application and then delayed reviewing its housing priority decision. The delays resulted in Miss B being given a later award date. The Council has agreed to apologise for the delays, backdate Miss B’s award date and take action to prevent similar failings in future.

The complaint

1. Miss B complains that the Council took too long to assess her housing application and then failed to give her enough housing priority. She says that as a result of this, her family has had to remain living in a property which is not suitable for her disabled daughter’s needs.

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What I have and have not investigated

2. I have investigated Miss B’s complaints about events since July 2021 when she last applied to join the Council’s housing register. I have not investigated the Council’s decisions to close two previous applications because Miss B’s complaint about this has been made to us late. I consider it would have been reasonable for Miss B to request a review of those decisions and complain to us within 12 months if she remained dissatisfied.

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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 an injustice, we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
4. 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)
5. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

6. I have:
• considered the complaint and the documents provided by the complainant;
• discussed the issues with the complainant;
• considered the documents the Council has provided; and
• given the Council and the complainant the opportunity to comment on my draft decision.

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What I found

The Council’s housing allocations schemes

7. The scheme introduced in January 2023 places applicants in a priority band from Band A (highest priority) to Band D (lowest priority). It says Band B will be awarded where the applicant needs to move on medical or welfare grounds (including grounds relating to a disability).
8. The previous scheme placed applicants in a priority band from Band 1 (highest priority) to Band 4 (lowest priority). It awarded Band 2 in the following circumstances.
• 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.
• A member of the household seeking accommodation is disabled and re-housing will enable that person to overcome physical barriers created by current accommodation e.g. steps and stairs.
• A person with a severe disability requiring substantial adaptations to a property which is not and cannot be provided for in their current accommodation.
9. In both schemes, the award date is the date on which a higher priority band applied. It is used to prioritise between applications within the same band.
10. When a mobility assessment is carried out, the Occupational Therapist decides on the appropriate priority needs assessment (PNA) score. PNA 3 is the highest award and level of need which qualifies applicants for Band 1 - emergency disability. PNA 2 is a medium level of need and qualifies applicants for Band 2 - disability. PNA 0 or 1 means there is no substantial level of need or a low-level need and the applicant does not qualify for a band award.

Overview

11. Miss B lives in a two-bedroom privately rented house with her 10-year-old son and 7-year-old daughter.
12. Miss B’s daughter, who I will refer to as K, is disabled and has complex needs.
13. In July 2021, Miss B applied to join the Council’s housing register. She provided medical evidence to show the difficulties she was experiencing in her home, including having to carry K up and down the stairs and being unable to get K’s wheelchair in and out of the property. The evidence also showed that K needed a profiling bed but one had not been ordered because there was not enough space for it in K’s bedroom.
14. The Council assessed Miss B’s application in December 2021. It awarded Band 2 on medical grounds and decided the family needed a two-bedroom property.
15. Miss B requested a review of the Council’s decision. She explained that due to K’s needs during the night, it was not appropriate for her to share a room with her brother, and so they needed a three-bedroom property. Miss B explained that a cupboard had been converted into a bedroom for K, and that she was having to sleep in a cot because the room was too small for the profiling bed she needed.
16. The Council wrote to Miss B in March 2022 with a partial decision. It decided to change Miss B’s bedroom eligibility from two bedrooms to three bedrooms. It also asked Miss B to provide the dimensions of the room K slept in and asked her to request a mobility assessment.
17. Miss B provided the room dimensions and confirmed that she had requested a mobility assessment. Around a month later, the Council told Miss B that it had not received the request for a mobility assessment. Miss B then made a further request.
18. The mobility assessment was carried out in October 2022. The Occupational Therapist (OT) said that K needed a property which was suitable for a wheelchair user, with ramped or level access, a through floor stair lift and level access shower. The OT recommended a Band 2 disability award.
19. The Council completed the review in November. It decided that Miss B needed an adapted property and awarded Band 2 medical, Band 2 disability and Band 3 for overcrowding.

Analysis

20. Miss B submitted her housing application on 19 July 2021. We consider councils should assess applications in four to six weeks. The Council assessed Miss B’s application on 8 December 2021, around 20 weeks later. This delay was fault.
21. Miss B requested a review of the Council’s banding decision on 15 December 2021. Government guidance says that eight weeks is a reasonable timescale for completing reviews. The Council changed Miss B’s bedroom eligibility from two bedrooms to three in March 2022, but it did not complete the review until 11 November 22, 47 weeks after Miss B requested the review. This delay was fault. I do not consider the delay caused any significant injustice because the review did not result in a higher band award.
22. Miss B requested a mobility assessment on 31 March 2022 and 4 May 2022. It was not carried out until 12 October 2022. This delay was fault and contributed to the Council’s delay completing the review.
23. I have considered the Council’s housing allocations schemes and the OT’s PNA score and recommendations. I have found no evidence of fault in the way the Council decided to award Band 2.
24. If there had been no fault by the Council, I consider Miss B would have joined the housing register around eight weeks after she applied in July 2021.

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Agreed action

25. Within four weeks of my final decision, the Council will take the following actions:
• Apologise to Miss B for the delays in this case and backdate her housing award date to 13 September 2021, eight weeks after she applied to join the housing register.
• Investigate the reasons for the delay in carrying out the mobility assessment and take action to prevent such delays in future.
26. The Council has previously provided action plans to show the action it is taking to reduce delays in processing housing applications and review requests. Within eight weeks of my final decision, the Council will provide an updated action plan, state how long it is currently taking to process housing applications and reviews and provide a report to show how the time it is taking has changed over the last year. If delays have not significantly reduced, it will explain the reason for this.
27. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Final decision

28. I have completed my investigation and uphold the complaint. There was fault by the Council which caused injustice. The action the Council has agreed to take is sufficient to remedy that injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman