Summary: Mr X complains the Council failed to deal properly with his mother’s placement in a care home since June 2020. It is too late to investigate much of Mr X’s complaint. Recent events do not support the claim of fault by the Council.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Mr X, complains the Council failed to deal properly with his mother’s placement in a care home since June 2020.

Back to top

What I have investigated

2. I have investigated recent events about the Council’s handling of Mrs Y’s care home placement. I explain at the end of this statement why I have not investigated older events.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. If there has been fault which has caused an injustice, we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
4. If we are satisfied with a council’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)
5. 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 council followed the relevant legislation, guidance and our published “Good Administrative Practice during the response to COVID-19”.
6. 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)

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

7. I have:
• considered the complaint and the documents provided by Mr X;
• discussed the complaint with Mr X;
• considered the comments and documents the Council has provided in response to my enquiries;
• considered the Ombudsman’s guidance on remedies; and
• invited comments on a draft of this statement from Mr X and the Council, for me to consider before making my final decision.

Back to top

What I found

What happened

8. Mr X’s mother, Mrs Y, went into hospital in March 2020, after a series of falls at home. She remained in hospital until June 2020, when she moved to Care Home A under the COVID-19 Hospital Discharge Service Requirements. Under these Requirements, the aim was to discharge people within two hours to make room for people with COVID-19. If possible, people returned home, if necessary, with an enhanced package of care. If not, people moved to a care home. The NHS initially funded placements and enhanced packages of care with money provided by the Government specifically for that purpose. The funding remained in place until the Council reviewed a person’s needs and agreed their long-term care arrangements. The Requirements meant people often had little choice over the care home they went to. Another factor limiting choice was that care homes could not accept new residents if they had cases of COVID-19.
9. Mr X says the Council did not communicate with the family until February 2021.
10. In February 2021 the Council told Mr X the NHS had awarded his mother Funded Nursing Care. It said it would assess her needs under the Care Act. Mr X told the Council he was content for his mother to remain at Care Home A. He says this is because she had settled there, so it was too late to move her to her preferred care home. The Council sent Mr X information about a financial assessment for his mother. It also spoke to him about his mother giving someone power of attorney to manage her finances. Mr X does not recall this conversation.
11. Mr X says they had problems setting up a standing order for Mrs Y to pay the charges for her care, because the bank initially refused to accept it. By the time the standing order was set up, Mrs Y owed around £3,000. Mr X says the Council didn’t help by sending letters about Mrs Y’s charges to her home address.
12. Mr X complained to the Council in February 2022. He said Mrs Y should have moved to Care Home B, where she had stayed previously and knew other residents
13. The Council reviewed Mrs Y’s needs in March and referred her for a preliminary assessment for NHS Continuing Healthcare. That assessment was delayed by an outbreak of COVID-19 in Care Home A and Mrs Y catching it. When the assessment happened in May, Mrs Y was recommended for NHS Funded Nursing Care. It appears she had stopped being eligible sometime during 2021.
14. The Council’s records show it has assessed Mrs Y’s mental capacity to manage her finances and found she no longer has the capacity to do so. It has discussed with her family making an application to the Court of Protection to appoint someone as a Deputy to manage her finances. When the family questioned the need for this, the Council offered to do another mental capacity assessment with everyone present, so they were clear about the need for someone else to manage her finances.
15. When the Council responded to Mr X’s complaint in April, it explained why Mrs Y had not had choice over the care home she moved to in June 2020. It also explained about the contact with him in February 2021, which he did not recall but also did not dispute. It told him it had to send out the financial assessment documents several times because information was missing from them when they were returned. As Mr X had raised concerns about his mother’s health, the Council said:
• her GP had now referred her for an X-Ray; and
• Care Home A had referred her to the Speech and Language Team.

Is there evidence of fault by the Council which caused injustice?

16. Mr X says they have never seen a contract for his mother’s placement at Care Home A. However, when the Council helps fund a placement, the contract is between the Council and the care provider. There would be no reason for the family to see the contract. When the Council reviewed Mrs Y’s needs in February 2021 she had already settled in Care Home A, so everyone agreed she should remain there. Within the context of COVID-19, that is not evidence of fault by the Council.
17. The Council has more recently reviewed Mrs Y’s needs and assessed her capacity to manage her finances. It has advised her family about applying to the Court of Protection to appoint a deputy to manage her finances. It has responded to Mr X’s concerns about his mother’s health and appropriate referrals have been made. This does not suggest the Council is failing to meet Mrs Y’s needs.

Back to top

Final decision

18. I have completed my investigation on the basis there is no evidence of fault by the Council over its handling of recent events.

Back to top

Parts of the complaint I did not investigate

19. I have not investigated events from 2020 because of the restriction in paragraph 5 above. There are no grounds to investigate this late complaint. Mr Y knew about the move to a care home in June 2020 and had contact with the Council in February 2021. Besides, given the discharge requirements in place at the time, there would be little prospect of finding fault with the Council over the lack of choice in Mrs Y’s move to Care Home A or the failure to send her home with an enhanced package of care.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman