Summary: Mrs B says the Council failed to take action when a care worker shared her sister’s bed. There is no evidence of fault in the safeguarding investigation or in the conclusions reached following that safeguarding investigation.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Mrs B, complained on behalf of her sister. Mrs B complained the Council failed to take action when a care worker shared her sister’s bed when she visited Mrs B despite the fact she had made alternative sleeping arrangements available.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Ombudsman investigates complaints of injustice caused by maladministration and service failure. I have used the word fault to refer to these. The Ombudsman cannot question whether a Council’s decision is right or wrong simply because Mrs B disagrees with it. He must consider whether there was fault in the way the decision was reached. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3))
3. If we are satisfied with a Council’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. As part of the investigation, I have:
• considered the complaint and Mrs B's comments;
• made enquiries of the Council and considered the comments and documents the Council provided;
• considered Mrs B’s comments on my draft decision; and
• gave the Council an opportunity to comment on my draft decision.

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What I found

Background

5. Mrs B’s sister lives in a care home. Mrs B’s sister stayed with her for the first time in 2018. The care home arranged for a care worker to support Mrs B’s sister during that visit. Mrs B lives in a two-bedroom property and had arranged for the second bedroom to be available to her sister. Mrs B says when her sister and the care worker arrived she offered the care worker her own bed or the sofa to sleep on. Mrs B says the care worker declined both options and shared Mrs B’s sister’s room. Mrs B says the care worker asked her sister to lie about that.
6. The care home investigated the allegation. The information gathered during the investigation included the following information from Mrs B:
• the care worker declined to sleep in Mrs B's bedroom;
• at the end of the evening the care worker went into the bedroom with her sister and had not come out by the time Mrs B went to bed 30-40 minutes later;
• when Mrs B woke up the care worker and her sister were already up;
• Mrs B felt the care worker had asked her sister not to mention the bedroom arrangement which was asking her to be dishonest.
7. The information provided by the care worker was:
• she went into the bedroom with Mrs B's sister as she had asked her to stay because she was feeling nervous as it was her first overnight visit in many years;
• she stayed in the bedroom initially and sat on the bed talking to Mrs B's sister and reading her book for about an hour;
• she then left and went to sleep downstairs on the sofa;
• Mrs B got up after both she (the care worker) and her sister were both up;
• she denied she slept in the same bed as Mrs B's sister;
• she denied she asked Mrs B's sister to be secretive about anything.
8. The care home also spoke to Mrs B’s sister. Mrs B’s sister said she slept in the bedroom with the care worker but when she woke up in the morning only her toy tiger was with her.
9. The care home concluded the explanation of events put forward by Mrs B and the care worker matched as Mrs B would not have seen the care worker come out of her sister’s bedroom before she went to bed. The care home concluded Mrs B’s sister would likely have said she slept in the room with the care worker even if that was not the case given the care worker was there when she fell asleep but she had confirmed she was not there when she woke up. The care home also took into account the length of time the care worker had worked with Mrs B’s sister with no issues. As a result the care home concluded the most likely version of events was the care worker spent time in the room with Mrs B’s sister until she fell asleep and then left and slept on the sofa. The care home noted because this was after Mrs B had gone to bed it made sense she may have believed the care worker spent the night with her sister.

Analysis

10. As I said in paragraph 2, it is not the Ombudsman’s role to comment on the merits of a decision that has been reached without fault. So, it is not for the Ombudsman to comment on the outcome of the investigation unless there is evidence of fault in how the conclusions were reached. I have found no evidence of fault in this case. That is because the care home considered the detailed allegation provided by Mrs B, interviewed the care worker and spoke to Mrs B’s sister. As a result of those investigations the care provider was satisfied, on the balance of probability, there was no evidence to support a safeguarding concern. That was on the basis that Mrs B only saw the care worker entering the bedroom with her sister. As the care worker accepted she had done that and stayed with Mrs B sister until she had fallen asleep and then gone downstairs to sleep on the sofa there was no inconsistency between the two accounts. I recognise Mrs B takes a different view about what happened. However, there is no evidence to show the care worker stayed in the bedroom with Mrs B’s sister all night. Mrs B had gone to bed before the care worker said she exited the bedroom to sleep on the sofa and the evidence shows the care worker and Mrs B’s sister were already up when Mrs B got up the following morning. In addition to that, Mrs B’s sister has confirmed that although the care worker was with her when she fell asleep she was not present when she woke up the following morning. Given the evidence the investigation gathered I cannot criticise the Council for concluding there was no action to take.

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Final decision

11. I have completed my investigation and do not uphold the complaint.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman