Summary: Mrs X says her husband received neglectful treatment while staying at a care home. We will not investigate the complaint at this stage because while Mrs X has exhausted the complaints procedure with the care provider, Mrs X has also complained about the safeguarding enquiry carried out by the Council and the Council has not yet had the opportunity to respond to this part of the complaint.

The complaint

1. Mrs X says her husband received neglectful treatment at his care home and that safeguarding processes were not carried out properly by the Council. Mrs X wants the care provider to take responsibility for what happened and does not want to pay for the care her husband received given that she feels it was neglectful.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about councils and certain other bodies. Where an individual, organisation or private company is providing services on behalf of a council, we can investigate complaints about the actions of these providers. (Local Government Act 1974, section 25(7), as amended)
3. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint unless we are satisfied the council knows about the complaint and has had an opportunity to investigate and reply. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to notify the council of the complaint and give it an opportunity to investigate and reply (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(5))

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Mrs X says her husband received neglectful treatment at the care home resulting in pressure sores, Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs), incontinence and distress.
7. Mrs X says the Council and care provider did not properly safeguard her husband. Mrs X’s husband died in hospital shortly after being in the care home and Mrs X believes his treatment in the care home contributed to the cause of death. Mrs X says she has experienced emotional, financial and physical suffering because of the actions of the care provider.
8. Mrs X says the care provider could not access information and documents needed to determine whether the care home was at fault.
9. The care provider responded to Mrs X’s complaint and apologised for the level of service her husband received in the care home and ‘partially substantiated’ some fault.
10. While the care provider has fully responded to Mrs X’s complaint, the Council has not yet received a complaint from Mrs X regarding its safeguarding enquiry.
11. The Council is responsible for making safeguarding enquiries where the threshold is met. As Mrs X complained about the safeguarding process, and this is difficult to separate from the other parts of the complaint, the law says we should give the Council an opportunity to investigate and reply to this before we can consider it further. It is reasonable to give the Council the opportunity in this case.

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Final Decision

12. We will not investigate the complaint at this stage because the Council should first have the opportunity to consider and respond to Mrs X’s complaint about the safeguarding enquiry.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman