Summary: Mrs X complained about the Council’s failure to hold a private care provider responsible for the poor care it delivered to her mother, Mrs Y. We have discontinued our investigation because the complaint was late and there was not a good reason for the delay in bringing the matter to the Ombudsman.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complained that the domiciliary care provided to her mother, Mrs Y, was inadequate and left Mrs Y with wounds and skin infections. Staff were not adequately trained and lacked communication skills. After Mrs Y died, Mrs X complained to the Council, but its investigation did not resolve her concerns.
2. Mrs Y said she and her family felt distressed that her mother had not received the care she deserved in her final months. She wanted the Council to insist that the domiciliary care provider recruit suitable staff and train them adequately. She felt that the outstanding costs of care owed to the Council did not reflect the standard of care that had been provided to Mrs Y.

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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. 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)
5. It is our decision whether to start, and when to end an investigation into something the law allows us to investigate. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 24A(6) and 34B(8), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered information provided by Mrs X and the Council, and talked to Mrs X about her complaint.
7. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code and Guidance on Jurisdiction.
8. Mrs X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on the draft decision statement before I issued my final decision.

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What I found

What happened

9. The domiciliary care packaged commenced in June 2022. Mrs X’s main complaints related to events in November 2022. Mrs X raised her concerns directly with Mrs Y’s social worker at that time.
10. Mrs Y died in January 2023. Mrs X made a formal complaint to the Council in May 2023. The care provider responded via the Council in September 2023, at stage 1 of the Council’s complaints procedure.
11. The Council’s Debt Officer contacted Mrs X regarding unpaid care costs in March 2024. Following that conversation, the Debt Officer asked the Council’s complaints team to take another look at the complaint. The complaints team wrote to the family in March, asking them to set out their outstanding concerns. Mrs X was dealing with the recent death of her father, so responded in May. The Council sent its stage 2 complaint response to Mrs X in June, signposting her to us if she remained dissatisfied. Mrs X approached the Ombudsman in July 2024.

Mrs X’s account

12. Mrs X told me that, when she and her sister had raised their concerns verbally with their mother’s social worker, in late 2022, the social worker had said she would escalate those matters to safeguarding and the Care Quality Commission (CQC). They had thought at the time this was the first stage of the complaints procedure, but realised later that it wasn’t.
13. When I asked why she had not pursued matters after the stage 1 response in September 2023, Mrs X said that she was not sure she had received the response at that time. She thought perhaps she had not seen it until it was sent to her by the Council in June 2024, as an attachment to the stage 2 response.
14. I asked why, if they hadn’t received a response to their May 2023 complaint, they hadn’t chased that with the Council. Mrs X and her sister said that they couldn’t remember the exact timeline, because a significant period of time had passed since then. However, they had never considered the complaint to be resolved, and that they were letting people have time to respond, thinking they would get back to them when they were able to.

Analysis

15. The law says people must bring complaints to us within 12 months of becoming aware of the matters they are complaining about, and that we cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons.
16. If Mrs X did not receive the September 2023 stage 1 response to her May 2023 complaint, she could have chased this up with the Council. We usually consider that three months is long enough for a body to respond to a complaint, so August 2023 would have been a reasonable time to chase for a response.
17. If Mrs X did receive the stage 1 response in September 2023, and was dissatisfied, she could have escalated the matter to us. That would have been within 12 months of the events of November 2022. She did not need to seek a stage 2 response because the statutory adult social care complaints procedure is a single stage but, had she done so, the Council could have directed her to us.
18. The complaint was resumed in March 2024 as a consequence of the Council’s actions, not those of Mrs X.
19. There is not a good reason for the delay in coming to us, and Mrs X could have done so in late 2023. I cannot see good reasons to exercise discretion to investigate further in this case. For this reason, therefore, I will discontinue my investigation of Mrs X’s complaint.

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Final decision

20. I have discontinued my investigation because the complaint is late.

Investigator’s final decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman