Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the standard of care and support in the complainant’s relative’s care home. This is because the substantive matters have been to court or could reasonably have been raised with the court, plus we are unlikely to find fault with more recent complaint matters. Finally, we cannot achieve the outcome requested.

The complaint

1. In short, Mrs X complains, on behalf of her relative Mr Y, that he should be moved to his own property to thrive and progress. Mrs X reports many problems in Mr Y’s care home that she says are ignored.
2. Mrs X says she has been complaining for many years about care failings in the home and she is fed up with it.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
4. The courts have said that where someone has sought a remedy by way of proceedings in any court of law, we cannot investigate. This is the case even if the appeal did not or could not provide a complete remedy for all the injustice claimed. (R v The Commissioner for Local Administration ex parte PH (1999) EHCA Civ 916)
5. We have the power to start or end an investigation into a complaint about actions the law allows us to investigate. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we think the issues could reasonably be or have been mentioned as part of the legal proceedings regarding a closely related matter. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 24A(6) and 34B(8), as amended, section 34(B))
6. 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 or continue an investigation if we decide we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

7. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
8. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

9. The Court of Protection deals with decision-making for adults who may lack capacity to make specific decisions for themselves. The Court of Protection may need to become involved in difficult cases or cases where there is disagreement which cannot be resolved in any other way. The Court of Protection makes declarations, decisions or orders on financial or welfare matters affecting people who lack capacity to make such decisions.
10. Mrs X made a recent application to the Court of Protection about Mr Y’s care and support need arrangements. This was dismissed by the court. This means we cannot look at most of the complaint matters raised by Mrs X. Arguably some of the matters she has raised after the court consideration would have been reasonable for her to raise to the Court too.
11. However, for those more recent issues that were not reasonable for Mrs X to raise with the Court, I can see the Care Provider has responded in some detail to Mrs X’s various issues which I summarise below:

• with respect to Mr Y’s skin integrity issues, the Care Provider sought medical advice and he was prescribed a cream for his skin by the GP
• while the Care Provider noted Mrs X not wanting Mr Y to use any petrol based creams and mineral oil, staff followed health professionals advice and guidance
• the Care Provider noted that the GP had advised Mr Y should stop washing with salts as it was drying out his skin
• the Care Provider said it would monitor the issues with Mr Y’s razors not being new
• the Care Provider apologised that Mr Y had been lying on a on bare mattress and said it would reimburse Mrs X for purchasing bedding for him
• the Care Provider would be recording Mr Y’s bowel movements
• it noted Mrs X’s concerns about how Mr Y ended up with a foam ball that he bit
• the Care Provider confirmed to Mrs X that her visits were not being listened to.

12. We will not investigate for several reasons. We are unlikely to find sufficient fault with the responses by the Care Provider. A lot of the complaint issues have been brought to the attention of the Court so they lie outside jurisdiction. Finally we cannot achieve the outcome requested by Mrs X to move her relative to his own accommodation.

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Final decision

13. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because it has been to court, we are unlikely to find fault and we cannot achieve the outcome requested.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman