Summary: Ms X complained about the care her mother, Mrs Y, received at a care home, and about items having gone missing. We will not investigate this late complaint. There is not a good reason the issues were not raised sooner after Mrs Y passed away, which was in 2016.

The complaint

1. Ms X complained about her mother’s (Mrs Y’s) care in a care home. She says her mother was neglected. She also complained some of her mother’s belongings were missing when the family recently checked the items that had been placed into storage when she passed away.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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 care provider has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered the information Ms X provided when she complained to us.
4. I considered Ms X’s comments on a draft version of my decision.

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What I found

5. Ms X’s mother, Mrs Y, passed away in 2016. She had been living in a care home run by the Care Provider. A removals company collected Mrs Y’s belongings, including furniture, from the care home and transported it to storage. The family did not check the items, although Ms X says the items were under the care of an attorney at this time.
6. In 2017, Ms X complained to the Care Provider about the quality of Mrs Y’s care. She was not satisfied with the response but did not contact us.
7. In 2019, the family collected Mrs Y’s possessions from storage and found some items were missing. They complained to the Care Provider. Ms X then complained to the Ombudsman as she was not satisfied with the Care Provider’s response. She included her complaint about Mrs Y’s care.
8. The further away in time an investigation takes place from the events to be investigated, the more difficult it may be to establish the material facts with reasonable confidence. In older cases we are less likely to be able to gather sufficient evidence to reach a sound judgement. In this case, the Care Provider has found that records are missing and it has apologised to Ms X. This affects the likelihood of us being able to investigate. I am not confident now that there would be a realistic prospect of us reaching a sound, fair, and meaningful decision.
9. In any event, I am also not satisfied the family could not reasonably have complained sooner. Ms X could have raised the complaint about quality of care with the Ombudsman in 2017. She only recently found out about items being missing, when the family checked Mrs Y’s stored possessions. However, it would have been reasonable for the family, or the attorney who had responsibility for the items until 2019, to have checked sooner.

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Final decision

10. The Ombudsman will not investigate this late complaint. This is because Ms X could reasonably have complained sooner, and there is limited chance we could reach a sound judgement. It is therefore not appropriate to use our discretion to investigate.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman