Norfolk County Council (21 016 378)
Category : Adult care services > Residential care
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 07 Apr 2022
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about Mrs X’s respite care at this time. We could not currently come to sound conclusions, because there is an ongoing safeguarding investigation and a coroner’s inquest. It is open to Mr X to resubmit his complaint to us at a later date.
The complaint
- Mr X complained about lack of proper care for his wife in a care home during two weeks’ respite. The care home prevented Mr X visiting and isolated his wife for two weeks. Mrs X’s treatment in the home led to her not eating and drinking nor taking her tablets, and her dementia worsened. Mr X said this shortened her life expectancy, and Mrs X has since passed away. This has caused the family significant distress. Mr X wants the relevant staff to be disciplined and receive training.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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:
- there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
- any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
- any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mr X raised his concerns about Mrs X’s care to several organisations. The Council is investigating his concerns via its safeguarding procedures, and Mr X told us there will be a coroner’s inquest in June 2022.
- Until we know the outcomes of these processes, we could not come to sound conclusions about the impact any fault had on Mr and Mrs X. It is open to Mr X to return to us within a reasonable time after the ongoing processes have completed.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because we cannot come to sound conclusions at this time about whether there was fault and whether that caused an injustice if so.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman