The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council ignoring advice and input of health professionals and family members when it completed adult social care assessments. This is because an investigation would not lead to a different outcome.
The complaint
Mr X complains the Council ignored advice and input of health professionals and family members when it completed its adult social care assessments. He says the assessments completed from October 2020 onwards are inaccurate. He also complains about the Council’s complaint handling.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
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) The Ombudsman investigates 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 may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide further investigation would not lead to a different outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Mr X complains the adult social care assessments completed by the Council since October 2020 are inaccurate as they did not include the input and advice of his autism health professional.
Mr X’s complaint is late as he has not complained within 12 months of when he was first aware of the issue.
Nevertheless, even if we were to exercise discretion to consider this late complaint, we would not investigate as it would not lead to a different outcome. This is because the Council is currently in the process of completing a new adult social care assessment with Mr X. This appropriately remedies any injustice caused by the alleged fault.
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaints about how the Council dealt with his complaint as we are not investigating the substantive matters.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because an investigation would not lead to a different outcome.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman