Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Ms B’s complaint about the Council’s decision not to place new residents with her and remove residents from her care home. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault with the actions taken by the Council to warrant an Ombudsman investigation.

The complaint

1. Ms B says her care home business failed because the Council did not pay the care fees for a resident, Ms C, it placed with her in 2017. In addition Ms B says the Council removed residents from her care without giving a valid reason and ensuring the validity of her business. Ms B says NHS staff lied and her health and wellbeing has suffered through this.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.

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

3. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered the information and documentation Ms B provided. I sent Ms B a copy of my draft decision for comment.

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What I found

5. Ms B complains the Council’s failure to pay one of its residents, Ms C’s care fees and its decision to suspend placing new residents in her care home caused her health and business to suffer.
6. The Council says it advised Ms B in August 2018 that it could not secure a charge on Ms C’s property and so consequently she was funding her own care. Ms B says the Council owes over £15,000 in unpaid fees excluding the £10,000 it gave her as a goodwill gesture.
7. The Ombudsman will not investigate this element of Ms B’s complaint. Ms B knew of the Council’s decision not to fund Ms C’s care in August 2018 and could have come to the Ombudsman before now if she was concerned about the payment. Although the Council still had responsibility for ensuring Ms C’s needs were met, it would have been for Ms B to give notice to Ms C to quit if she was not receiving payment for care she was providing.
8. Ms C says the Council’s decision to remove residents and not to place further clients with her resulted in her losing her business. The Council investigated Ms B’s concerns. It says NHS staff raised concerns about the level of care provided to some residents in Ms B’s care. Separately the Care Quality Commission (CQC) placed the home in Special Measures, that is inadequate care provision. The Council decided not to place further residents in the home from September 2018. It lifted the suspension in January 2019 when there was an improvement but suspended placing residents in the home again in June following further concerns raised by the CQC about care provided to residents. In July the Council decided to remove residents from the home to ensure their safety.
9. The Councils duty is to the residents they have a responsibility to provide care for. Although Ms B disputes the allegations made by NHS staff, the CQC also found concerns with the running and management of the home. The Ombudsman could not say the Council’s actions to suspend placing residents in a home where there were significant concerns or its decision to remove residents to a place of safety were taken with fault.

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Final decision

10. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault with the actions taken by the Council to warrant an Ombudsman investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman