Avery Healthcare Group (19 018 251)

Category : Adult care services > Other

Decision : Closed after initial enquiries

Decision date : 13 Mar 2020

The Ombudsman's final decision:

Summary: The Ombudsman cannot investigate Mrs X’s complaint about a retirement community. This is because the community is not providing a regulated activity under the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

The complaint

  1. Mrs X complains on behalf of her late mother, whom I shall call Ms Y, that the independent living community where Ms Y lived did not have a commitment to safeguarding its residents nor did it respond properly to an allegation of burglary of her mother’s home.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

  1. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
  2. We investigate complaints about councils and certain other bodies. We cannot investigate the actions of a body such as an independent retirement community where it is not providing a regulated activity in connection with adult social care. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 25 and 34A, as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

  1. I considered the complaint and the documents provided by Mrs X. I have written to Mrs X with my draft decision and given her an opportunity to comment.

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What I found

  1. Ms Y lived in an independent retirement community. The company responsible for the community provides accommodation and various amenities but does not provide any regulated activities as described in the Health and Social Care Act 2008.
  2. Regulated activities are defined as providing ‘personal care for persons who by reason of old age, illness, disability are unable to provide it for themselves and which is provided in a place where those persons are living at the time’.
  3. The Ombudsman cannot investigate this complaint because it is not about the provision of adult social care.

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Final decision

  1. The Ombudsman cannot investigate this complaint because it is not about the provision of adult social care.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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