By Charlotte Webster
Somerset Council breached the Care Act when deciding to reduce a physically disabled woman’s direct payment and removed carer’s support from her husband, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has concluded.
The watchdog said the failings by Somerset council caused the couple avoidable confusion and distress, as it criticised the Council for negligence and incompetence. The male in this scenario moved from Hampshire to Somerset with her husband in March 2016 The Ombudman told Sommerset Council(pictured) to conduct a fresh assessments and care and support plan for the pair and involve them in the process, whilst taking reasonable steps to reach agreement.
CHANGES
Any changes to the direct payment must be clearly explained in writing with reasons, and the existing direct payment must be preserved until the above recommendations are complete, the Ombudsman told the Council.
Hampshire council had allowed the woman to employ the man as an exception to the normal rule that direct payments cannot be used to pay someone living in the same house who’s a close relative.
The funding remained the same as Hampshire, in line with the Care Act’s requirements around maintaining continuity of care when a person moves into a new area without having been assessed by their new authority. An assessment by the Council in 2016, according to the ombudsman, was “mostly incomplete or blank” and failed to outline whether the woman had eligible needs.
A more efficient care and support plan was prepared for the woman the following month which, unlike the previous assessment, outlined her needs and support. Later that month, the council completed a new care plan which called for the woman’s personal budget to be reduced to £505 for 39 hours’ care.
A meeting with a manager in December to discuss the complaint was responded to in February 2019, two months later confirming the reduction in Mrs A’s personal budget and saying that Mr A’s carer’s payment would stop as there was no provision for the council to provide carer’s support to someone who was a paid carer.
The ombudsman found the council breached sections 9 (the duty to carry out assessments of care and support needs) and 37 (the duty to assess after being notified of a person’s move into a local authority’s area)) of the Care Act when it failed to assess Mrs A’s needs upon her moving to Somerset.
When it did complete an assessment in September 2016, large parts of the form were blank and it failed to state her eligible needs. The ombudsman also slammed the council’s failure to complete a review of Mrs A’s care and support plan in 2017, contrary to the expectation in statutory guidance that these take place at least annually.
If that wasn’t enough damage, the Council was found to have also breached section 10 of the Care Act by failing to assess his needs as a carer.While the council provided carer’s support to him by including a carer’s payment in Mrs A’s direct payment, it did not give him a support plan, contrary to section 25 of the act.
The ombudsman said the social worker should have made it clear in August 2018 there was going to be a fresh assessment of Mrs A and a new care plan, and the failure to be open about this was a fault. Mr and Mrs A should have had the opportunity to comment on the care and support plan before it was finalised.
In failing to make a distinction between eligible needs being met by the man as a carer and those being met by the direct payment, the care plan was not compliant with the Care Act statutory guidance.The council adopted the view that the man could not be a carer because he was contracted to care for Mrs A using the direct payment.
LEARNING AUTHORITY
A Somerset County Council spokesperson said: “Somerset County Council agreed with the recommendations set out by the Ombudsman report.
“Somerset County Council is a learning authority and we have made changes to our systems and processes so that we can prevent this from happening again, we have apologised to the individual and her family and continue to work with them to make sure they are appropriately supported.”