Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X complaint about unsatisfactory care provided to her mother by her care home. She complains about matters that occurred between 2018 and 2022. This is because her complaint is late and there are no good reasons to exercise discretion to consider the late complaint.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains about unsatisfactory care provided to her mother by her care home. She complains about several matters that occurred between 2018 and 2022, including:
• Failure to ensure Ms Z was properly ingesting her medication and decision to discontinue her medication.
• Neglect of Ms Z’s oral and general hygiene.
• Failure to maintain Ms Z’s podiatrist appointments.
• Discrepancies in Ms Z’s sundry expenditure.
• Lost items, including Ms Z’s dentures.
• Use of an inappropriate image of Ms Z on the company’s social media page.
• Data breach concerns.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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 care provider has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
3. 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. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start an investigation if we decide:
• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
• investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or
• there is another body better placed to consider this complaint.

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

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

6. Mrs X’s mother, Ms Z, was resident in a care home between June 2018 and April 2022. Mrs X first made her complaint in July 2022.
7. The care home responded to Mrs X’s complaint in December 2022 and 2023. In summary, the responses detailed:
• It was Ms Z’s doctor who decided to discontinue her medication. The issues with medication occurred in 2018 and Mrs X did not report any concerns to staff at the time.
• Records showed Ms Z’s oral and personal hygiene took place as expected.
• Ms Z disliked wearing her dentures. Said that it was common for residents who had a cognitive impairment to misplace their dentures.
• Mrs X was seeing the inhouse podiatrist until January 2020 when Mrs X cancelled the arrangement. Also noted Ms Z’s doctor had reviewed her feet and advised no other treatment needed.
• Care home agreed to reimburse Ms Z for expenses incurred regarding hair washing by a hairdresser. This was because it accepted it was realistic to expect Ms Z’s hair to be washed as part of her everyday personal care.
• Item inventory was taken by staff in September 2018. The inventory did not list any of the items Mrs X said was missing, however accepted new items brought in were not itemised. Says residency agreement states home would not be responsible for any loss or damage to items unless occurred due to direct outcome of staff misuse.
• Says once alerted to the photo, it was removed. Said Mrs X had consented for photos of Ms Z to be posted. Accepts photo could have been edited to be more flattering.
• Accepts there had been a data breach as other resident’s fee information had been mistakenly disclosed to Mrs X.
8. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a care provider has done. In this case, the matters Mrs X complains about all occurred between 2018 and 2022. This is more than 12 months ago. I cannot see any good reason as to why Mrs X could not have brought the complaint to us earlier. Therefore, I don’t consider we can exercise discretion to consider the late complaints.
9. Further, even if we were to exercise discretion to consider this late complaint, we could not investigate Mrs X’s complaint. This is because it is not likely an investigation could add to the care provider’s investigation nor lead to any different findings or outcomes. This is especially because it is unlikely any records would be available to review given it has been more than two years since Ms Z left the care home, and around 3-4 years since the main issues complained about occurred.
10. Finally, Mrs X’s complaint about a data breach is best considered by the Information Commissioner’s Office.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because her complaint is late and there are no good reasons to exercise discretion to consider the late complaint.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman