Sheffield City Council (21 017 499)
Category : Adult care services > Residential care
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 04 Apr 2022
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how Mrs X’s mother was treated in a care home leading up to her death. This is because it is a late complaint and there are no good reasons for us to investigate it now.
The complaint
- Mrs X complains about failure of a care home to provide her mother with proper care prior to her death. The care home was commissioned by the Council to provide residentail care for Mrs X’s mother. Mrs X says failures by the care home have caused her family significant distress.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
- 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)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mrs X’s mother passed away in April 2020. Mrs X did not complain to the care home about what happened until November 2021. The care home responded in December 2021. Mrs X did not complain to the Ombudsman until February 2022. Therefore this is a late complaint.
- We have the power to disregard this restriction where there are good reasons for doing do. Whilst I understand the impact Mrs X’s mother’s death would have had on the family this does not account for 19 months delay in bringing a complaint to the care home or 22 month delay in coming to the Ombudsman. The care home has already accepted fault for issues Mrs X raised and put in place a number of service improvements. Taking this into account there is no justification for us to disregard the 12 month time limit set out in law and so we will not investigate this complaint.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because it is a late complaint and there are no good reasons for investigating it now.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman