Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Ms B’s complaint about the way the Council communicated with her regarding safeguarding referrals it received in 2018 and 2019. This is because Ms B has now received the information she wants and the Ombudsman could achieve no more even if he investigated. The Ombudsman is satisfied the Council has remedied the injustice caused to Ms B by its actions.

The complaint

1. Ms B is unhappy with the way the Council communicated with her following two separate safeguarding referrals it received in 2018 and 2019. Ms B says the Council knew she wanted her advocate present at the meeting in 2018 but went ahead without her. Ms B says she did not receive the paperwork she requested following the outcome of the meetings. Ms B says she has not received personalised support from the Council and has had to pursue her concerns through the complaint process.

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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)
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’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe:

• it is unlikely we would find fault, or
• the fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• it is unlikely we could add to any previous investigation by the Council, or
• it is unlikely further investigation will lead to a different outcome.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I discussed the concerns with Ms B’s advocate and considered the information and documentation she provided. I sent Ms B’s advocate a copy of my draft decision and considered her comments on it.

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What I found

5. Ms B is unhappy with the way the Council has treated her following safeguarding concerns raised about care she received from her care provider. In 2018 the Council received a safeguarding referral regarding the poor insertion of Ms B’s catheter resulting in Ms B being in pain. Ms B told the Council she wanted her advocate to be present at the meeting, but the meeting went ahead without her. Ms B asked for a formal copy of the outcome of the safeguarding meeting but did not receive
it.
7. In 2019 a further safeguarding alert was raised when a new carer failed to put Ms B’s medication away safely.
8. Ms B complained to her care provider about the care she had received and to the Council about the lack of communication.
9. The Council investigated Ms B’s concerns under its responsibility for Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults. It acknowledged Ms B did not initially receive a response from her care provider to her complaints and chased this up. It confirmed it had alerted the CQC and its own contracting team about Ms B’s concerns and apologised it did not inform her of this. It said information at times appeared to be confused which left Ms B feeling excluded from the process. It acknowledged the service Ms B had received regarding communication and the inconvenience she encountered was not as good as it should have been. It apologised and explained it has now put in place appropriate steps to ensure it does not happen again. It confirmed Ms B now has the paperwork she requested.
10. The Council has investigated Ms B’s concerns, acknowledged it failings, apologised for the faults, implemented new steps to minimise the risk of similar occurrences and provided the paperwork she requested. The Ombudsman could achieve no more than this even if he investigated and is satisfied this remedies the injustice caused.

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Final decision

11. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because Ms B has now received the information she wants, and the Ombudsman could achieve no more even if he investigated. The Ombudsman is satisfied the Council has remedied the injustice caused to Ms B by its actions.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman