Having already gone down the route of the Ombudsman and him finding no fault on the part of the LA, back in March, I recently discovered emails passed between the LA and my daughter’s mental health team, which quite clearly indicated that the LA was going to talk to the Ombudsman and persuade him not to take action on my complaint. I wrote to the Ombudsman recently, and he denies he would have been influenced by the telephone call, which he says he hardly remembers. At the time that i got his refusal, I was really having to deal with a lot of ill health in the immediate family, and I felt very let down by his response. For instance, he stated that if we had felt we had a complaint we ought to have taken it up sooner with the LA. It had been taken up within a few weeks, but it took them more than a year to investigate. I sent him the emails to prove this, but they were ignored. So I felt very despondent with his response.
The LA would not do an assessment for my daughter because she was under a MH team, so they said.By March, as she was no longer with the MH team, according to the Ombudsman, she could have one any time she changed her mind- she had always asked for one but been turned down. Despite three letters recently and numerous phone calls, they will not do one for her, nor answer my letters as to why. The Ombudsman says if I want to make a new complaint, I have to go down the route of an official complaint to the LA first. As this is essentially the same complaint, and it took more than a year to get a final response from the LA, I just don’t have the time or energy to do this all over again. The Ombudsman says I should take it up with the LA and the MH Trust about the emails regarding the involvement of the Ombudsman. But what would be the point? What could I ask them? They are deliberately withholding information from me, the man from the LA will not reply to any correspondence from me,and what could I actually say? Why did you want to persuade the Ombudsman not to proceed with my complaint.? Why did yu say you did not know if we should be offered any help at all and that the Ombudsman be persuaded not to divulge information to us about what you were planning? Is it realistic to expect an answer, when I can’t even get a response to a normal request for help? I think I am being fobbed off by the Ombudsman and I wonder can I take this to someone else within that service to look at this objectively? Thanks.
Hi Judy.
Challenging a decision made by the LA and Social Care Ombudsman ?
Specialist field which requires assistance from the legal profession.
First port of call ?
CAB … for their input before deciding on the way forward :
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/
As for the way forward , I cannot see any avenue that would come cheap … legal aid required ?
One to bounce off the CAB for their experiences in securing said aid in such cases.
I can understand that completely, but it’s exactly what they are relying on in the long term, they want you to fall by the wayside and just go along with how poorly they’ve performed.
The Ombudsman is reopening my son’s case, they told me that about September, but now I’ve had two emails saying they haven’t allocated the case yet. I want a solution to his never ending problems, which have been dragging on for years.
I too had issues with the ombudsman, he produced a report that was full of errors, I had to go through this report pages and pages and correct all the errors, I wrote 6 pages sent it off and lost my case.
The ombudsman said that the LA had tried to support me, but I never got any carer support, everything I had to do myself, fill in forms, find out info for myself, I never got any break from caring, I never got any emotional support.
I should have received a package of support but I was ineligible for support, so one minute the Ombudsman says the LA tried to help me, the next I wouldn’t get any support.
The resolution to the complaint would have been for the LA to give me an unpaid carer support package/care plan, I got nothing.