Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because there are other bodies better placed to address the matters it raises.

The complaint

1. The complainant, to whom I will refer as Mr N, says he tripped and suffered an injury while visiting a home run by the Care Provider.
2. Mr N complains:

• the Care Provider failed to make a written record of the incident when he reported it, and then subsequently provided an inaccurate, unsigned report to his solicitor; and
• the Care Provider said it would regard any further contact from Mr N about the incident as harassment.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints about adult social care providers. 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 there is another body better placed to consider this complaint. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 34B(8) and (9))
4. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I reviewed the correspondence between Mr N and the Care Provider.
6. I also shared a draft copy of this decision with each party for their comments.

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What I found

7. In June 2018, Mr N visited a care home managed by the Care Provider. During his visit, he says he tripped on a step and fell, causing injury. Mr N says he immediately reported the incident to the care home manager, but the manager did not make any written record of the incident.
8. Mr N subsequently approached a solicitor in order to pursue a personal injury claim. He requested a copy of the Care Provider’s accident report, which he received a few weeks later. However, the report did not reflect the incident he had described to the manager, and it had been signed by the manager and not Mr N himself.
9. Mr N subsequently decided not to pursue the personal injury claim. On 5 June 2019, he wrote to Care Provider, submitted a complaint about the failure to record the incident properly, and asking for a copy of the Provider’s complaints policy.
10. On 7 June, the Care Provider replied. It said Mr N’s complaint was being handled by their respective legal representatives, and asked him to desist from making contact with staff there or visiting the home. The Care Provider said its legal team had advised not to send its complaint policy to Mr N, and that it would view any further contact from him as harassment.
11. After advice from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and his MP, Mr N referred his complaint to the Ombudsman on 12 July.

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Analysis

12. Mr N’s complaint is two-fold – first, the Care Provider’s failure to follow proper accident reporting procedures, and second, its response to his attempt to pursue a complaint.
13. The responsibility for enforcing health and safety law is divided between the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and local authorities. For care homes, it is the local authority which takes this role. And so I consider a failure to follow accident reporting procedures would be better served by being referred to the local authority, to allow it to investigate.
14. If Mr N is dissatisfied with the local authority’s handling of the matter, the Ombudsman may then be able to investigate this as a separate complaint. However, for now I do not consider the Ombudsman should investigate the accident reporting matter itself, as the local authority is the appropriate body to do this.
15. The Ombudsman will also not investigate a complaint about complaint handling, in isolation, if he is not investigating the substantive matter itself. It is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures, if we are unable to deal with the substantive issue.
16. In addition, and although I recognise that Mr N is no longer pursuing this, the Ombudsman has no power to make findings on personal injury, which is a matter for the courts. So the Ombudsman is not the correct body to look at either the accident itself, or how it was reported, and will not investigate the handling of a complaint about this in isolation.
17. For this reason, I consider the Ombudsman should not investigate this complaint.

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Final decision

18. I have decided not to investigate this complaint.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman