Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaints about domiciliary care provided to her relatives, Mr and Mrs Y. The injustice is not significant enough to justify us investigating.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains on behalf of her relatives, Mr and Mrs Y. She says their care provider:
• ignored Mr Y when he said he had already eaten, resulting in food wastage;
• failed to administer Mrs Y's medication; and
• made false allegations of abuse against her.
2. Mrs X says this caused distress and financial loss. She wants the Council to reimburse the cost of the wasted food, accept responsibility for what happened and retrain its staff.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. Part 3 and Part 3A of the Local Government Act 1974 give us our powers to investigate adult social care complaints. Part 3 is for complaints where local councils provide services themselves. It also applies where a council arranges or commissions care services from a Home, even if the council charges the person receiving the care. In these cases, we treat the Home’s actions as if they were council actions. (Part 3 and Part 3A Local Government Act 1974; section 25(6) & (7) of the Act)
4. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide:

• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by Mrs X.
6. I also considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. Our role is to consider complaints where the person bringing the complaint has suffered significant personal injustice as a direct result of the actions or inactions of the organisation. This means we will normally only investigate a complaint where the complainant has suffered serious loss, harm, or distress as a direct result of faults or failures. We will not normally investigate a complaint where the alleged loss or injustice is not a serious or significant matter.
8. The Council addressed Mrs X’s concerns through its complaints process. It explained that its records did not show that Mr Y communicated he already ate. Nonetheless, the carer replaced the meal after being made aware of the food wastage. Its records showed that carers did administer medication to Mrs Y. It also responded to Mrs X's concerns about the allegations made against her.
9. The matters Mrs X complains about were isolated incidents which the Council considered and responded to through its complaints process. While I appreciate Mrs X remains dissatisfied, I do not consider the matters caused Mr or Mrs Y a significant personal injustice that would justify an investigation by us. Nor do I consider a further investigation would achieve a more worthwhile outcome than what the Council has already provided.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because the injustice is not significant enough to justify us investigating.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman