Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about her mother Mrs Y’s former care home. There is not enough evidence that it was actions or inactions by the home which led to Mrs Y’s placement ending to justify investigating. There is not enough evidence of significant injustice caused to Mrs X or Mrs Y to warrant an investigation. There is no different worthwhile outcome an investigation would achieve for Mrs X or Mrs Y.

The complaint

1. Mrs X’s mother, Mrs Y, is elderly and has dementia. Mrs Y went to a home run by the care provider, initially for a short respite stay, but with the possibility that the placement could become permanent.
2. Mrs X complains the care home:
1. did nothing to help Mrs Y settle at the home before requiring her to move out;
2. failed to provide Mrs Y with her medication for two days;
3. failed to communicate with her that Mrs Y was being moved to another home.
3. Mrs X says the matters caused her huge amounts of stress and worry, making her emotional and upset, affecting her sleep and health. She also says she is angry Mrs Y could have been moved without Mrs X’s knowledge. Mrs X wants an apology from the care provider. She also wants the home to change its processes to make sure medication is available in time for residents, and to improve communication with relatives.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. We investigate complaints about adult social care providers and decide whether their actions have caused an injustice, or could have caused injustice, to the person making the complaint. I have used the term fault to describe such actions. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 34B and 34C)
5. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe:

• the action has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement; or
• it is unlikely further investigation will lead to a different outcome.

(Local Government Act 1974, sections 34B(8) and (9))

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered information provided by Mrs X, and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. Mrs X says the care home staff should have suggested medication for Mrs Y to help her settle in, and given her more time to do so. It is not the role of the care home to propose medication for its residents to seek to change their behaviour. That would be for Mrs Y’s GP or another professional qualified to give her medical care. A medical practitioner did prescribe such a medication to Mrs Y, but this was later in her stay. We cannot make a finding here that Mrs Y did not settle at the home due to actions or inactions of the care provider. Nor could we say that if Mrs Y had received the medication sooner and spent longer at the home that this would have altered her behaviour to an extent the care provider would have agreed a permanent placement. There is not enough evidence that it was fault for the home’s staff to make the decision about the placement on the basis of Mrs Y’s behaviour after two weeks.
8. Mrs X says Mrs Y could not take two medications for previous conditions because they had not been re-ordered in time, and missed both treatments over two days. Mrs X says the care provider did not organise the repeat prescriptions because Mrs Y was on a respite stay and staff expected she would be leaving. It is unfortunate that Mrs Y should miss taking medications. But there is not enough evidence of this affecting Mrs Y’s health, or any other resulting significant injustice, which warrants us investigating further.
9. Mrs X says the care provider failed to communicate with her about Mrs Y being moved to another home. She says the care provider could have moved Mrs Y without Mrs X’s knowledge. But the care provider says they discussed the move with the operator of the second home, who advised they would inform Mrs X about the move. I can understand Mrs X’s concern about Mrs Y’s move. But there is not enough evidence of a significant personal injustice caused to her by the care provider’s actions to warrant an investigation.
10. Mrs X wants an apology from the care provider. The care provider has apologised that Mrs Y’s placement did not work out, and for not calling Mrs X back on one occasion. Mrs X also seeks changes to the care provider’s ongoing practices at the home. But any such changes would have no personal bearing on Mrs X or Mrs Y now as Mrs Y no longer lives there. It would not be an effective use of our limited resources here to investigate to get a different outcome in the form of further apologies or process changes at the home.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because:
• there is not enough evidence that actions or inactions by the care home resulted in Mrs Y’s placement ending to justify investigating;
• there is not enough evidence of a significant injustice to Mrs X or Mrs Y from the care provider’s actions to warrant an investigation;
• there is no different or worthwhile outcome our investigation would achieve for Mrs X or Mrs Y.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman