Decision Report 201900600

Summary

C is a carer for their child and was previously in receipt of direct payments. C raised concerns that the partnership had said that C spent their direct payments inappropriately. C disputed that this was the case. They complained about the length of time taken to complete the Carers Respite Funding assessment and approve the budget and that the partnership overruled decisions made by C's allocated social worker about the use of C's Carers Respite Funding. In particular, C was concerned that they were not permitted to use their Carers Respite Funding to attend particular training courses or towards the purchase of a caravan/campervan. They also complained that the partnership told C that unspent budget could not be carried over into the next financial year; and that the partnership had not paid C Carers Respite Funding.

We took independent advice from a social worker. We found that the majority of the partnerships actions regarding C's respite funding were reasonable. However, we also found that there was an unreasonable delay in providing C with a decision regarding their carer's respite budget for short breaks. We upheld C's complaint on this basis.

Recommendations

What we asked the organisation to do in this case:

• Apologise to C for the delay in providing them with a decision regarding their carer's respite budget for short breaks. The apology should meet the standards set out in the SPSO guidelines on apology available at www.spso.org.uk/information-leaflets.

What we said should change to put things right in future:

• Carers should be provided with timely decisions regarding respite budgets.

We have asked the organisation to provide us with evidence that they have implemented the recommendations we have made on this case by the deadline we set.