Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the actions of a Council-run care home. It is reasonable for Mrs X to refer her concerns about lost items to the police and the small claims court. There is insufficient evidence of fault in the care home’s decision to seek assistance from the Urgent Community Response Team.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complained about the actions of a care home where her mother, Mrs Y, lived. Her concerns included:
• Mrs Y was admitted to hospital rather than being supported at the end of her life in the care home where she was most comfortable and staff knew about her complex care needs; and
• Missing possessions after Mrs Y’s death.
2. Mrs X said Mrs Y was likely distressed in the last days of her life, and Mrs X went to inconvenience in arranging for her return to the care home. Mrs X wanted the missing items to be located and returned, apologies and service improvements.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)
4. 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:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.

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

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

Mrs Y’s admission to hospital

7. Urgent community response (UCR) teams are part of the NHS and provide urgent care to people in their homes, aiming to avoid unnecessary hospital admissions. The care home staff contacted the UCR team rather than seeking a hospital admission themselves for Mrs Y. The UCR nurse made the decision that Mrs Y needed to be admitted to hospital.
8. We cannot consider NHS decisions. There is insufficient evidence of fault by the care home as it sought appropriate medical assistance with the aim of supporting Mrs Y at the care home.

Missing possessions

9. The Council found the care home had not followed the correct procedures as it had not completed an indemnity form with the family to record which items had been returned. It has reminded the care home of the appropriate procedures for returning items to families after the death of a resident.
10. If we investigated the matter it is unlikely we could recommend anything different in the way of service improvements. We cannot say what happened to the remaining items, nor could we find and return them. As Mrs X suspects theft has occurred, it is open to her to report the matter to the police.
11. We will not normally investigate complaints about lost possessions, as the small claims court provides a relatively straightforward process for seeking compensation in such circumstances. It is open to Mrs X to make a claim in the small claims court should she wish to pursue a financial remedy for missing items.

Complaint-handling

12. The Council also accepted the care home manager did not communicate appropriately with Mrs X after she had complained initially to the home. It is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaint-handling alone, when we are not investigating the substantive matters. The Council explained it would address this with the care home to ensure communication in future was clear and open. It is unlikely we could achieve anything more than this if we investigated the matter, in any event.

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Final decision

13. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because it is reasonable for Mrs X to refer her concerns about lost items to the police and the small claims court, and there is insufficient evidence of fault in the care home’s decision to seek assistance from the Urgent Community Response Team

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman