Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint about a safeguarding investigation carried out by the Council. This is because we could not add to its review of the investigation, and could not achieve the outcome the complainant wants.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I refer to here as Mr T, says that
• His father was not properly cared for in his care home and was unfairly served with an eviction notice;
• Mr T was unjustly banned from the care home;
• The care home unfairly raised the fees for Mr T’s father;
• The care home did not investigate the Mr T’s complaints properly;
• The Council has not investigated properly Mr T’s safeguarding concerns regarding his mother’s death and a fall suffered by his father at the care home; and
• The Council has not investigated his complaints properly.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. 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 council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
4. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe:

• it is unlikely we would find fault, or
• it is unlikely we could add to any previous investigation by the Council, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered the information provided by Mr T and by the Council. I also considered information provided by Mr T in respect of a related complaint against the Care Provider. I have sent Mr T a draft decision for his comments.

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What I found

6. Mr T’s parents were placed in a new Care Home in early 2017. His mother, sadly, passed away soon after this, and Mr T raised a safeguarding concern to the Council regarding the Care Home’s actions in the period before she was taken to hospital.
7. Over the following months Mr T raised several complaints against the Care Home. They were not upheld, but he was unhappy with the responses.
8. In July 2017 the Care Home served notice on Mr T’s father, stating that Mr T appeared to have no trust in the Care Home. Mr T appealed the decision. He also complained about a decision by the Care Home to ban him from its premises.
9. Further complaints were made by Mr T about the level of fees charged, but they were not upheld. He additionally raised further safeguarding concerns to the Council in respect of his father.
10. Eventually, Mr T’s father left the Care Home in December 2017.
11. Mr T remained dissatisfied, and complained to the Council both about the actions of the Care Home, and about the Council’s response to his safeguarding concerns.
12. The Council considered the complaint and reviewed the safeguarding investigation, in its response of July 2018.
13. It did look at the complaints about the Care Home’s actions and did not uphold them. However it also pointed out that as the care for Mr T’s father was privately commissioned and funded (with some NHS funding support), it had no responsibility for the actions of the Care Home, or the response from the Care Provider.
14. The Council also reviewed its own safeguarding investigation. Its findings were that the issues were properly looked at, but that there was no evidence to support the allegations made, and that the documented evidence from the Care Home and the ambulance service did not support the allegations.
15. Mr T has now complained to the Ombudsman, but we will not investigate the complaint. This is for several reasons:
• There is no fault in the Council’s handling of the complaints about the actions of the Care Provider, as it has no responsibility for them.
• Much of the complaint made relates to the Care Provider’s actions, and that has been responded to in a related complaint against the Care Provider.
• Parts of the complaint also relate to issues dating from 2017. The Ombudsman cannot consider complaints about issues known to the complainant more than 12 months previously, so those are out of our jurisdiction.
• We could not add anything to the Council’s thorough review of the safeguarding investigation;
• We cannot investigate general issues such as the Council’s relationship with the Care Provider or concerns about other residents, as our role is to consider whether there is specific fault by the Council causing injustice to the individual who complains to us, so we could not achieve Mr T’s desired outcome of preventing the Council from placing further residents at the Home.

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Final decision

16. I will not investigate this complaint. This is because some of the issues are out of our jurisdiction, and we could not add anything to the Council’s response or achieve the outcomes that Mr T is looking for.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman