Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint that the care home misplaced a former resident’s possessions. The possessions did not belong to Ms X. There is insufficient personal injustice to warrant an investigation and it is unlikely an investigation would lead to a different outcome.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains the care home misplaced a former resident’s possessions. She states the care home’s response to her complaint about the matter is unsatisfactory.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide:

• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

5. In its response to Ms X, the care home accepted that following the former resident’s death, it had misplaced some of their possessions. It apologised to Ms X for this and for the upset that this had caused. It said it had learnt lessons from the incident and taken steps to prevent it happening again.
6. We will not investigate this complaint. The possessions did not belong to Ms X, so there is insufficient personal injustice to warrant an investigation. In addition, the care home has stated it does not know what happened to the possessions. It is unlikely we could add to this or that an investigation would lead to a different outcome.

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Final decision

7. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because there is insufficient personal injustice and it is unlikely an investigation would lead to a different outcome.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman