Summary: We will not investigate this late complaint about a domiciliary care package. There is not a good reason for the delay in the complainant contacting the Ombudsman and we could not carry out a fair investigation now due to the passage of time.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained about the domiciliary care his mother (Mrs Y) received. His complaints include inadequate training of carers, inadequate record keeping,
   Mrs Y’s call bell being out of reach, creams not being properly stored, and unfair termination of the care package after Mr X complained. He wants an investigation and answers.

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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 care provider has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Mr X’s complaint concerns events between 2020 and 2022 relating to his mother’s (Mrs Y’s) home care. He contacted the Ombudsman to complain in November 2022. At this point, it is likely we would have considered parts of his complaint late already as the law requires people to bring complaints to us within 12 months of becoming aware of the matter, unless there are good reasons.
6. We asked Mr X for further information in November 2022 to assist us in considering whether we could, and should, investigate the complaint. Mr X responded seven months later, in June 2023. During this time, Mrs Y had passed away. Mr X’s understandable grief accounts for some of the delay in him coming back to us, but does not provide adequate reasoning for a delay of seven months in providing us information we required to be able to consider the complaint.
7. The more time that passes between an event and the complaint being made, the less chance there is of us being able to come to sound conclusions. We cannot get accurate information as different people’s recall of events has likely changed with the passage of time. Mrs Y is also no longer available for us to discuss the matter with. We will not now consider this complaint.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate Mr X’s late complaint because there is not a good reason for the delay in him contacting the Ombudsman and we could not carry out a fair investigation now due to the passage of time.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman