North East Lincolnshire Council (19 004 233)

Statement Not upheld Safeguarding 24-Dec-2019

Summary: The complaint is about care arrangements for Mr and Mrs B when Mrs B went home from hospital after a fall. There was no fault in the Council’s discharge planning which was in line with the Care Act 2014 and Mental Capacity Act 2005. And, there is no evidence Mrs B’s care arrangements caused Mr B’s health to decline or led to his admission into care. So we do not uphold this complaint.

London Borough of Islington (19 011 456)

Statement Closed after initial enquiries Safeguarding 23-Dec-2019

Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Ms A’s complaint about the Council’s actions regarding her late father’s, Mr B’s, safeguarding investigation. This is because the Council has apologised for the delay in allocating the case, upheld some of her concerns about recording and explained what actions it has taken to minimise the risk of a similar occurrence. The Ombudsman is satisfied this remedies the fault.

Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council (19 011 845)

Statement Closed after initial enquiries Safeguarding 23-Dec-2019

Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Mrs A’s complaint about the Council’s decision not to investigate concerns she raised about her mother’s, Mrs B’s, hospital care under its responsibility as lead safeguarding authority. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault with the actions taken by the Council to warrant an Ombudsman investigation.

Lancashire County Council (19 010 521)

Statement Closed after initial enquiries Safeguarding 20-Dec-2019

Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Mr A’s complaint that the Council has a vendetta against him and his family and has recorded malicious allegations about him in a report. This is because it would be reasonable for Mr A to report any false information recorded by the Council in reports to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council (19 012 706)

Statement Closed after initial enquiries Safeguarding 20-Dec-2019

Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Mrs A’s complaint about the way the Council considered her complaint regarding a safeguarding investigation. This is because where he is not considering the substantive matters he will not usually investigate the way the Council handled a complaint about them. That is the case here.

North Yorkshire County Council (19 015 138)

Statement Closed after initial enquiries Safeguarding 19-Dec-2019

Summary: Ms B complains the Council is responsible for causing her stress which led to her visiting the hospital and undergoing medical tests. The Ombudsman will not investigate the complaint because there is no evidence of fault by the Council and we cannot conclude its actions led to her requiring medical testing.

Southampton City Council (19 000 595)

Statement Upheld Safeguarding 17-Dec-2019

Summary: Mrs X complains the Council’s care provider, Cygnet Care Services Ltd, failed to care properly for her son, resulting in him suffering severe constipation and losing a lot of weight. There were failings to communicate properly with Mrs X and a GP about her son’s health, which prevented a holistic approach being taken. The Council needs to apologise and take action to prevent similar problems from happening again.

Westminster City Council (19 009 583)

Statement Upheld Safeguarding 17-Dec-2019

Summary: We uphold Mr D’s complaints. The Council failed to act in line with sections 194 and188 of the Housing Act 1996 and with sections 9 and 42 of the Care Act 2014 when dealing with Mr D. The Council also failed to consider the need to make reasonable adjustments to its services. This was fault and caused avoidable Mr D anxiety. To remedy the injustice, the Council has agreed to: take a homeless application, consider whether it needs to provide interim accommodation, carry out a social care assessment and establish whether there is any current risk of abuse to Mr D in Westminster before agreeing with him whether he wishes to be referred to another area’s safeguarding adults team or to the police. Mr D will need to attend the Council’s offices for appointments with housing and social care staff and he will need to sign consent forms.

East Sussex County Council (19 010 537)

Statement Closed after initial enquiries Safeguarding 06-Dec-2019

Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Mr A’s complaint about the Council withholding video evidence from him. This is because Mr A can ask the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) to consider whether he can have access to data he believes he is entitled to, but the Council is refusing to let him have.

Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council (19 011 872)

Statement Closed after initial enquiries Safeguarding 05-Dec-2019

Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Mrs A’s complaint about the Council’s decision to treat her mother-in-law, Mrs B, as having capacity to decide where she should live in 2007 or its failure to complete a Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) assessment in 2009. This is because the Council’s actions have not caused Mrs B a significant enough injustice to warrant an Ombudsman investigation.