The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council not supporting him because there is not enough evidence of fault or significant injustice.
The complaint
Mr X complains the Council has not supported his social care needs and has not helped him to move to a new area.
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: there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or 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 Mr X and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Mr X complains the Council has failed to support his social care needs for the past 14 months. He also says it has not helped him to move to a new area.
The Council says Mr X has been in a supported living placement during this time. It provided details of the support offered to Mr X and that he has often not engaged with this support. The Council is completing a review of Mr X’s support needs, including how it can support Mr X to move to a new area if he chooses.
I will not investigate this complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council, or of significant injustice to Mr X. There is also no worthwhile outcome achievable by further investigation, as the Council is already reviewing Mr X’s needs.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault or significant injustice.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman