Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about adult social care support at home. This is because the Care Provider’s actions do not cause a significant enough injustice to justify our involvement.

The complaint

1. Ms D says the Care Provider failed to provide suitable care to her relative, Ms E. Ms D says the Care Provider did not leave long enough between the morning call and lunch call, so Ms E was not hungry and could not have paracetamol. Ms D is concerned the Care Provider did not always give Ms E the correct medication or failed to properly record it. Ms D says care workers left dirty items on the floor, and Ms E was wearing the same jumper for several days. Ms D says the ambulance crew did not know Ms E hit her head when she fell, and so there was no CT scan. Ms D says the Care Provider failed to respond to phone calls or adequately deal with her concerns.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about adult social care providers. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe:

• the action has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

(Local Government Act 1974, sections 34B(8) and (9))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Care Provider.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Bee Home Care Limited (the Care Provider) was supporting Ms E in her own home, with a care call in the morning and at lunchtime. Ms D raises many concerns and will have been frustrated by the service, but there is no suggestion of a significant enough injustice caused to Ms E such as any medical or lasting impact to justify an Ombudsman investigation.
6. We do not investigate all complaints we receive. In deciding whether to investigate we need to consider various tests. These include the alleged injustice to the person complaining. We only investigate the most serious complaints. The issues were resolved by a change of care provider.
7. The Care Quality Commission regulate care providers in England and inspected the Care Provider in response to the complaint, and the local safeguarding authority has also investigated.
8. Ms D is also unhappy with the way the Care Provider dealt with her complaint. But it is not a good use of public resources to look at the Care Provider’s complaints handling if we are not going to look at the substantive issue complained about. We will not therefore investigate this issue separately.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Ms D’s complaint because the Care Provider’s actions have not caused a significant enough injustice to justify our involvement. The issues were resolved by changing the care provider, and any wider service concerns will be considered by the Care Quality Commission and local safeguarding authority.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman