Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about the care provided to her father by his care home. This is because an investigation would not lead to any further findings or outcomes.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains about the care provided to her father, Mr Z, by his care home. She says the care was inadequate and negligent.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start an investigation if we decide:

• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or
• there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

5. The Council completed safeguarding enquiries into the concerns raised by Ms X about her father’s care home.
6. The safeguarding investigation identified:
• It had been challenging to gather the information requested from the care home.
• The care home had failed to complete incident reports and failed to provide the Council with information about a claimed incident of aggression from Mr Z.
• Poor record keeping by the care home, including care notes not including sufficient detail. Identified this contributed to delays in information sharing.
• The care home failed to share information about Mr Z’s declining health with Ms X in a timely way.
• Mr Z’s medical administration records had been destroyed rather than archived. This meant it was not possible to verify any changes to Mr Z’s medication.
7. The safeguarding enquiries substantiated the concerns. The care home identified learning from the enquiries and put in place some service improvements.
8. An investigation is not justified because it would not lead to any further findings or outcomes. The Council has investigated the concerns and identified fault with the care home’s service provision.
9. Further, appropriate recommendations have been implemented by the care home and the Council. The Council confirmed it has written off Mr Z’s outstanding care charges following the concerns being substantiated. This is a significantly higher remedy than we could have achieved. Therefore, an investigation would not lead to any further recommendations.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because an investigation would not lead to any further findings or outcomes.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman