Summary: The complainant, Mr C lives in a care home. Some items of his clothing went missing. There was fault by the care provider in how it responded to the complaints.

The complaint

1. I call the complainant Mr C. He is represented in bringing this complaint by his brother Mr B and his wife, Mrs B. Mr C, lives in a care home, Wilmsmere House. Mr and Mrs B say items of Mr C’s clothing went missing and no satisfactory explanation was provided. Also, the payment made did not cover the cost of the lost items. They considered there should be an investigation into the circumstances and the actions of the home.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council or care provider has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
3. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)
4. The Ombudsman investigates 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 or may decide not to continue with 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.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

5. We investigate complaints about councils and certain other bodies. Where an individual, organisation or private company is providing services on behalf of a council, we can investigate complaints about the actions of these providers. (Local Government Act 1974, section 25(7), as amended)
6. If we are satisfied with a council’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

7. I considered the complaint and documents provided by Mrs B and spoke to her I asked the Council and care provider to comment on the complaint and provide information. I sent a draft of this statement to Mrs B, the Council and the care provider and considered their comments.

Back to top

What I found

8. Mr C has lived in the care home for over ten years. The Council became responsible for commissioning the care but the substance of these events is about the actions of the care provider. In 2018 Mrs B said that items of his clothing went missing. This wasn’t a one-off event but happened repeatedly. They raised it with the home but did not receive a satisfactory response.
9. They complained again in August 2020 and received a final response from the care provider in February 2021. That accepted there had been some delay in replying to correspondence. It concluded they could not establish what had happened to the clothing as it had happened too long ago. But accepted there could be improvements in processes relating to residents’ clothing. It also offered to make a payment to Mr and Mrs B. They offered £125 which was in addition to £75 which had been offered in previous correspondence.
10. In responding to my enquiries about the complaint the care provider reiterated the apologies about how the home responded to the complaint. It also explained the action it has taken to ensure the safe-keeping of residents’ clothing. It has also offered a further £150 because of the failings in the way the complaint was handled.

Analysis

11. The issues at the heart of this complaint happened too long ago for us to be able to carry out a satisfactory investigation and come to a sound finding. Some of the items went missing in 2018 and over 2019. Mrs B did raise this with the home in 2019 but did not then pursue the matter again until a year later in August 2020. I understand she and her husband were both unwell. But, given the passage of so much time, we cannot carry out an effective investigation so I am not going to look further into what happened in 2018 and 2019.
12. Mrs B is seeking compensation for specific items of clothing that went missing. If someone is seeking compensation because of damages or fault arising from the alleged negligence of others then that is a matter for the courts to decide. We would not look at such a claim.
13. The care provider has accepted it did not respond to Mrs B as it should and made a payment of £200. In responding to this complaint it offered a further payment of £150. I That is satisfactory remedy for any faults in how the complaint was handled.
14. The care provider has acted on the issues this complaint highlighted. It said it will improve how it keeps inventories of residents’ possessions and how this will be kept under review. It has a system for labelling clothing and will make clear the role of residents’ key workers in ensuring the effectiveness of the system. It will also ensure that these issues are considered when resident contract terms and conditions are due for renewal.

Back to top

Agreed action

15. The care provider has apologised to Mrs B and offered a further £150 to reflect the shortcomings in the way the complaint was handled. The care provider will make the payment within a month of the final decision.

Back to top

Final decision

16. There was fault by the care provider in its complaint handling when acting on behalf of the Council.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman