Summary: We will not investigate this late complaint about the care provided to Mrs X’s grandmother. There is not a good reason for the delay in her bringing the complaint to us.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains the Care Provider neglected her grandmother (Mrs Y). She says this caused significant distress to them both, and she wants the Care Provider to make service improvements.

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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. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint unless we are satisfied the body knows about the complaint and has had an opportunity to investigate and reply. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to notify the body of the complaint and give it an opportunity to investigate and reply (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(5), section 34(B)6))

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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 complained about the Care Provider’s management of her grandmother’s falls risk. She says despite the family raising concerns, the Care Provider did not take sufficient steps to prevent further falls and Mrs Y had a fall which Mrs X says resulted in her death.
7. Mrs X has provided evidence she complained to the Care Provider in December 2021, while Mrs Y was still alive. The Care Provider’s response was issued to her in early 2022. The law says people must bring complaints to us within 12 months of becoming aware of the matter unless there is a good reason for the delay.
8. I have considered that the delay since then can be partly explained by Mrs Y’s death and the understandable grief process. I have also considered that Mrs X says the local authority carried out a safeguarding enquiry at some point in addition. However, I am not satisfied that these reasons are sufficient to explain around 18 months’ delay before Mrs X brought the matter to the Ombudsman. Therefore we will not now investigate a complaint about events from 2021.
9. Before we can consider complaints, we must usually be satisfied the organisation has had an opportunity to respond to the issues via its own complaint process. Should there be further events that occurred more recently than those raised in Mrs X’s complaint of December 2021, these would need to be raised with the Care Provider, and then it is open to Mrs X to bring those complaints to us for us to consider separately.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mrs X’s late complaint because there is not a good reason for the delay in bringing the matter to the Ombudsman.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman