Nottinghamshire County Council (22 001 244)
Category : Adult care services > Residential care
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 19 May 2022
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about the standard of care her father received in his care home placement between 2010 and 2011. The complaint lies outside our jurisdiction because it is late and there are not good grounds to consider it now, over a decade on from the events complained about.
The complaint
- The complainant, whom I shall call Ms X, complains about the standard of care her father received in his Council arranged care home placement between 2010 and 2011.
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 and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Ms X complains about the standard of care her father, Mr X, received in his care home placement between late 2010 and early 2011. Mr X sadly died in 2011.
- Ms X says she complained to the care home about her father’s care in 2011, but did not receive a written response to her complaint.
- The Council says it has no record of a complaint from Ms X. It says it would not consider it via its complaints procedure now because it is outside the timescales for making a complaint.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because it lies outside our jurisdiction. The law says a complaint should be made to us within 12 months of a person first becoming aware of the matter. There are not good grounds to exercise discretion to consider it now. I cannot see there is any realistic prospect of us being able to carry out a meaningful investigation and reach a fair and sound view on the matters complained about now, more than a decade later.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman