Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council handled Ms E’s adult social care. This is because we have decided any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

The complaint

1. Ms D complains the Council failed properly to meet her relative, Ms E’s, adult social care needs at the end of Ms E’s life. They say this has caused them injustice because poor communication and care caused confusion and upset. This has been made worse for Ms D as the care provider failed to respond to her complaint. Ms D would like a full investigation.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We may investigate a complaint on behalf of someone who has died or who cannot authorise someone to act for them. The complaint may be made by:

• their personal representative (if they have one), or
• someone we consider to be suitable. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26A(2) and 34C(2))

3. Ms E has died; we have accepted Ms D as a suitable representative.
4. People may complain to us about injustice caused by:
• ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’ by a public organisation we could investigate; or
• the actions of an organisation in connection with privately arranged adult social care.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 26A(1) or section 34C(1)(a)).

5. 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), or section 34B(8)).
6. We will not normally investigate complaint handling if we are not investigating the rest of the complaint. This is because there is not usually enough injustice to justify us doing so. We collect information about particularly poor complaint handling practice and report this back to organisations. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), or section 34B(8)).

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How I considered this complaint

7. I considered information provided by the complainant.
8. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

9. The law means we can choose only to investigate a complaint where the person has suffered serious loss, harm, or distress as a direct result of faults or failures by the body complained about. We will not normally investigate a complaint where the alleged loss or injustice is not a serious or significant matter.
10. I recognise the circumstances of Ms D’s complaint have affected them, but this is not significant enough to warrant us investigating. We can provide no remedy to Ms E for any injustice she suffered as she has since died.
11. We will not investigate the way the Council handled the complaint and correspondence here because we are satisfied it did not cause enough separate injustice to warrant it.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate this complaint because any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman