Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about delays in the Council responding to Mrs X’s husband when he had a fall at home. This is because the Council has already taken action to address the complaint and has also agreed to pay Mr and Mrs X £250 to acknowledge the distress caused. It is unlikely an investigation would result in a different outcome.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains the Council failed to respond promptly when her husband fell out of bed. Mrs X says her husband was left on the floor for a prolonger period of time and the Council failed to keep her updated whilst she waited. Mrs X says this caused her and her husband significant distress.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Ombudsman investigates 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 may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or further investigation would not lead to a different outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
5. The complainant now has an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I will consider their comments before making a final decision.

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My assessment

6. The Council has written to Mrs X to apologise for the delay in getting to her home to deal with her husbands fall. The Council said it called Mrs X twice to provide her with updates and left messages on her answerphone. Mrs X says she did not get these messages.
7. The Council has said this was due to unprecedented demands on its service during the time and said it is taking steps to increase staff numbers. The Council also apologised to Mrs X for delays in responding to her complaint and for not speaking with her about the impact the incident had on her and her husband.
8. As well as an apology the Council has also refunded Mr and Mrs X the amount of money they paid for the service during 2021/2022. The Council has said it is reviewing staff levels.
9. Mrs X says she did not get an answerphone message from the Council to provide her with an update. However, the Council’s records show that calls were made at the time. It is unlikely we could resolve what happened by investigating what happened nor is it likely to result in a different outcome.
10. It is clear that this incident has caused Mr and Mrs X significant distress. The Council was experiencing unprecedented demands on its service during the time of the call and this explains the reason why there was a delay in attending to
    Mr X. We have written to the Council to suggest that a payment of £250 would be appropriate to acknowledge the distress caused to Mr and Mrs X as a result of this service failure. The Council has agreed to this. There is nothing further we could achieve from investigating this complaint. The Council has accepted its service failure, apologised and agreed to provide a suitable remedy to Mr and
    Mrs X.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because it is unlikely that an investigation would result in a different outcome.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman