The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about delay by the Council’s adult social care department and a failure to update the complainant. This is because we do not consider any fault has caused a significant enough injustice to justify our involvement, and there is no worthwhile outcome to achieve by an investigation.
The complaint
Ms B says the Council has failed to update her in the last seven months about therapy options. Ms B says this has had an impact on her mental health.
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: any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
The Ombudsman has previously considered complaints from Ms B; we will not consider the same issues again. However, Ms B raises a new issue about not hearing from the Council about the therapy it was looking into for her. The Council has assessed Ms B does not have adult social care needs which it has a duty to meet, so is currently providing no service to Ms B. The Council said it would see if the NHS would provide therapy for Ms B.
We do not investigate all complaints we receive. In deciding whether to investigate we need to consider various tests. These include the alleged injustice to the person complaining. We only investigate the most serious complaints where we feel we can achieve a worthwhile outcome.
It has been upsetting for Ms B to not hear anything further and has caused a decline in her already vulnerable mental health. However, this would not justify an Ombudsman investigation to consider this issue further. The decision on whether to provide therapy is one for the NHS, which is a body that is not in our jurisdiction to consider. Any delay by the Council or failure to update Ms B does not change the outcome of whether therapy is provided. So, there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by an Ombudsman investigation.
Final decision
We will not investigate Ms B’s complaint because there is not a significant enough injustice to justify our involvement, and investigation would not achieve a worthwhile outcome.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman