Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Mrs A’s complaint about the Council’s failure to investigate care she received from her care provider under its responsibilities for safeguarding adults. This is because he could not add to the Council’s response or make a different finding even if he investigated.

The complaint

1. Mrs A complained to the Ombudsman and the Council in March 2018 about care she had received from her former care provider in 2017 following an incident when she scalded herself. Mrs A says the Council should have considered this incident as a safeguarding matter and investigated what happened under its safeguarding responsibilities.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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
• the fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• it is unlikely we could add to any previous investigation by the Council, or
• it is unlikely further investigation will lead to a different outcome, 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

3. I considered the information and documentation Mrs A provided. I sent Mrs A a copy of my draft decision for comment.

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What I found

4. The Council investigated Mrs A’s complaint. It said Mrs A received direct payments and employed the care provider directly. It explained it could not investigate the actions of the care provider. However, it accepted arrangements for Mrs A’s care could have been planned better. It apologised to Mrs A and said it had reminded staff to support service users to access independent brokerage services who can advise them regarding their direct payment and help with sourcing care. The Ombudsman could not achieve any more than this even if he investigated.
5. The Council says although it investigated Mrs A’s complaint about the care provider’s actions it should have investigated Mrs A’s complaint under its responsibility as lead safeguarding authority but acknowledged it did not in this case. The Council explained this was because the Social Worker involved in her care relied on the agency to report the concerns rather than report them herself. It confirmed it has spoken to the individual concerned who will receive additional training regarding the reporting of safeguarding matters. The Ombudsman could not add to this or make a different finding even if he investigated.

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Final decision

6. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because he could not add to the Council’s response or make a different finding even if he investigated.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman