Summary: Miss X complains HC-One Oval Limited (HC-One) restricted her contact with her father, who lives in one of its care homes. This did not cause injustice to Miss X, as she has continued to see her father away from the care home.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Miss X, complains HC-One restricted her contact with her father, who lives in one of its care homes.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about adult social care providers. If there has been fault, we consider whether it has caused an injustice and, if it has, we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 34B, 34C and 34H(4), as amended)
3. This complaint involves events that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Government introduced a range of new and frequently updated rules and guidance during this time. We can consider whether the care provider followed the relevant legislation, guidance and our published “Good Administrative Practice during the response to COVID-19”.

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How I considered this complaint

4. I have:
• considered the complaint and the documents provided by Miss X;
• discussed the complaint with Miss X;
• considered the documents HC-One has provided; and
• shared a draft of this statement with Miss X and HC-One, and taken account of the comments received.

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What I found

5. The Government has issued guidance on Visiting care homes during COVID-19, which it updates regularly. The guidance issued on 1 December 2020 said all care homes should seek to enable:
• indoor visits where the visitor has returned a negative test result and wears appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE);
• outdoor visits and ‘screened’ visits, subject to maintaining social distancing and wearing appropriate PPE; and
• to follow guidance on the use of PPE for people working in domiciliary care (i.e. use a level 1 or 2 face covering provided you were more than two meters away from anyone else).
6. The Government updated the guidance on 19 December. It said:
• all care homes, regardless of Tier (unless there was an outbreak of COVID-19), should seek to enable outdoor visiting and ‘screened’ visits;
• all care homes in Tiers 1 to 3, unless there was an outbreak of COVID-19, should seek to enable indoor visits where the visitor has returned a negative test result and wears appropriate PPE; and
• to follow guidance on the use of PPE for people working in domiciliary care (i.e. use a level 1 or 2 face covering provided you were more than two meters away from anyone else).
7. The Government left decisions on visiting policies to individual care homes. There is nothing in the guidance about exemptions to wearing face masks. That was contained in Government guidance on face coverings.

Key facts

8. Miss X’s father, Mr Y, lives in a care home run by HC-One. Miss X is exempt from wearing a mask.
9. The care home contacted Miss X on 7 December to discuss her refusal to wear PPE during visits and the Government guidance on testing visitors, which it was implementing from 14 December. Miss X maintained her position on not wearing a face covering or taking tests for COVID-19. Miss X says she does not believe in testing as there are too many false positive test results.
10. HC-One wrote to Miss X on 21 December. It said:
• if she X wanted to visit the care home she had to wear a face covering;
• as she was exempt from wearing a face covering, she could not visit the care home;
• all visitors to the care home had to be tested for COVID-19 using a lateral flow test (LFT);
• Mr Y could go out with Miss X, but he was refusing to be tested or to self-isolate on returning, which put other residents and staff at risk;
• it may have to give Mr Y notice if there were further incidents which put residents at risk; and
• it had received reports of aggressive behaviour from Miss X towards staff and asked her to stop, saying it would report further episodes of this type of behaviour to the Police.
11. Mr Y visited Miss X in her home on Christmas day. Under the care home’s policy on visits, he had to be tested for COVID-19 the next day and isolate in his room for seven days.
12. Miss X has continued to see her father away from the care home. She says he no longer has to self-isolate when returning. He has not provided consent for Miss X to complain on his behalf. She says he is no longer concerned about the care home’s visiting arrangements.

Did the care provider’s actions cause injustice?

13. Care providers have had broad discretion over the arrangements for visits in care homes during COVID-19. HC-One has taken a cautious approach in deciding not to allow people who cannot wear a face covering visit its care homes. That was a decision it was entitled to take and not one I can criticise. HC-One could have explained the reasons for its decision more clearly. However, this did not cause injustice to Miss X which warrants a remedy, as it has not prevented her from seeing her father.

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Final decision

14. I have completed my investigation on the basis there is not enough evidence HC‑One’s actions have caused injustice to Miss X.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman