Decision report 201101704

Summary
Mrs C's daughter has a severe learning disability. For some years, Mrs C has accessed a certain level of respite care for her. When her daughter's respite allocation was reduced, Mrs C raised a number of concerns about the council's handling of the decision to do so. The council's complaints review committee had already considered the complaint, and our investigation was about whether the review committee had followed appropriate procedures and policies and had taken into account all the matters it should have.

Our investigation found that the review committee had been provided with all relevant information, including the information provided by Mrs C, before arriving at their decisions on her complaints. However, it was clear that, while handling Mrs C's representations, some misunderstanding had arisen between the council and Mrs C. This caused Mrs C distress and worry. The council accepted that there was a need for clear and concise information to be conveyed to service users. We also drew their attention to the fact that it is good administrative practice for notes of telephone calls to be taken. Although we did not uphold Mrs C's complaints, we made a recommendation based on her experience of contact with the council about this matter.

Recommendation
We recommended that the council:
• consider whether any lessons can be learnt from the handling of this case.