Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Care Provider’s communication with the family of a person in its care. Any injustice caused to the family is not sufficient in itself to justify investigation by the Ombudsman.

The complaint

1. Mrs X and Mrs Y complained about a Council-commissioned Care Provider responsible for their family member’s care. Their concerns included the Care Provider did not respond to their communication and was not transparent with them. They said this caused the family distress. They wanted the Care Provider to share information with them.

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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 injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (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. We will not normally investigate a complaint unless there is good reason to believe that the complainant has suffered significant personal injustice as a direct result of the actions or inactions of the service provider. This means that we will normally only investigate a complaint where:
• the complainant has suffered serious loss, harm, or distress as a direct result of faults or failures by the service provider, or
• there are continuous and ongoing instances of a lower-level injustice that remain unresolved over a long period of time.
6. We will not normally investigate a complaint where the complainant is not the person primarily affected and is complaining about a secondary impact on them, rather than acting on behalf of the person directly affected.
7. In this case, Mrs X and Mrs Y’s complaint is not also on behalf of the person who received care at the care home. Mrs X and Mrs Y’s claimed injustice relates to distress about allegedly not having been kept sufficiently informed. This alone would not meet the threshold of severity that would justify us investigating their complaint further. We will not investigate this complaint.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate Mrs X and Mrs Y’s complaint because any injustice is not significant enough to warrant investigation by the Ombudsman.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman