Summary: We will not investigate this late complaint. Further investigation is unlikely to provide Ms B with a different outcome to that already provided by the Council. Any injustice caused to her late father, Mr C, from the actions of the Council cannot be remedied now, so there is no good reason to disapply the law in this case.

The complaint

1. Ms B complained to the Council about the way the social worker dealing with her late father’s, Mr C’s, care behaved towards her and Mr C. Ms B says Mr C should have been discharged home with a package of care on 20 September 2019 following a period of rehabilitation in an out of county rehabilitation unit, but his social worker failed to ensure a package of care was available for him to return home. Mr C died the following day. Ms B says the lack of empathy and disregard shown for Mr C and his family is appalling. Ms B wants the Council to learn from her experience of dealing with them and for it to be more proactive instead of reactive in the future. In addition, Ms B complained about the care Mr C received from his care provider in the rehabilitation unit.

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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 has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered the information and documentation Ms B provided. I sent Ms B a copy of my draft decision.

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What I found

4. Ms B complained to the Council in February 2020 and explained she could not complain sooner because she was dealing the death of Mr C, grieving and has her own health concerns.
5. Mr C was discharged from hospital to a rehabilitation unit on 28 August 2019. Ms B says this was for a period of three weeks, but the Council failed to arrange a package of care for Mr C so he could come home three weeks later. The Council says although the social worker said in a meeting on 13 September she would contact Mr C’s preferred care provider, she did not do this until 18 September. It says the social worker did contact another care agency who could not provide a package of care to meet Mr C’s assessed needs. The Council partially upheld this element of Ms B’s complaint. Further investigation by the Ombudsman is unlikely to make a different finding.
6. The Council responded to Ms B’s complaints and upheld some of her concerns about communication. It acknowledged Ms B felt she and Mr C had not been spoken to in a correct manner. It apologised for this.
7. The Council explained there was a record of Mr B saying he only wanted care from his usual care provider. Ms B disputes this and says Mr C said in a telephone call on 20 September he would accept other care providers. We could not say what was said in a telephone conversation or make a finding on this point.
8. Ms B says the Council has not investigated properly, she is concerned there are areas of the Council’s complaint response which are not factually correct and disputes the social worker could not understand Mr C who had mental capacity to make decisions for himself. Ms B says the Ombudsman should investigate her concerns. Ms B says she has not had answers to all her concerns. Whilst it is understandable that Ms B wants answers, it is not the role of the Ombudsman to provide these.
9. We could not investigate or make a finding on what was said in conversations and discussions when we were not there. Sadly Mr C is now deceased. Any injustice caused to him from any fault an investigation might uncover, regarding the care he received or the Council’s failure to provide him with an appropriate package of care so he could have gone home on 20 September 2019 cannot be remedied now. The Council has apologised there was a breakdown in communication, that Ms B felt she was spoken over in conversations and for the poor experiences she expressed in her complaint. The Council upheld these points. The social worker said she would reflect on the way she communicated, and we are satisfied this remedies any injustice caused to Ms B from the Council’s fault.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because further investigation is unlikely to provide Ms B with a different outcome to that already provided by the Council. Any injustice caused to her late father, Mr C, from the actions of the Council cannot be remedied now. There is no good reason to disapply the law in this case.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman