Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the care provided to the complainant’s father in a care home, and the Council’s response to safeguarding alerts raised by the complainant. This is because further investigation would not lead to a different or additional outcome. Additionally the complaint is made late and there are no good reasons to exercise the Ombudsman’s discretion to consider it now.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I refer to here as Mr T, says that:
• The care provided to his father, F, in a residential care home, was not of an acceptable standard;
• The Council refused to carry out a Safeguarding investigation; and
• The Council refused to ask a refund of the care fees it paid to the Care Provider.

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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/care provider 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 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

5. I considered the information provided by Mr T and by the Council. I have also sent Mr T a draft decision for his comments.

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What I found

6. F was resident at a care home. In 2019 Mr T made complaints to the Care Provider about the quality of F’s care, and raised safeguarding concerns to the Council.
7. The Care Provider upheld the complaints in 2019.
8. The Council did not take the safeguarding concerns forward as Mr T had moved F to a different care home, and the Council found the risk was therefore removed.
9. Mr T remained dissatisfied and continued to press the Council to investigate further. He says that following involvement by the Care Quality Commission, the Council said it would refund F’s assessed contribution to his care.
10. Mr T asked the Council to request a refund of the care fees that it had paid to the Care Provider, but the Council refused. It said that despite admitted shortcomings, F did receive appropriate care. Additionally it pointed out that any refund of its contribution would be of no benefit to F.
11. Additionally the complaint is made late. We cannot investigate matters known to the complainant more than 12 months previously unless there are good reasons to do so. In this case, the issues complained of date back to 2019, Mr T was referred to us in March 2020, but he did not complain to us until April 2021.

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Final decision

12. Subject to any comments Mr T might make, my view is we should not investigate this complaint. This is because further investigation would not lead to a different or additional outcome.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman