Summary: Ms X complains the Council failed to properly consider her complaints about the quality of domiciliary care provided to her late relative, Ms Y, in 2023 to early 2024. We will not investigate. This is because there is no evidence of fault with the Council’s response as it was not responsible for the care provision.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains the Council failed to properly consider her complaints about the quality of care provided to her late relative, Ms Y, in 2023 and 2024.
2. Ms X says the carers were negligent and failed to ensure Ms Y was eating properly or living in a clean environment causing Ms Y to be admitted to hospital where she died.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We do not start an investigation if we decide the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
4. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word fault to refer to these. We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
5. Part 3 and Part 3A of the Local Government Act 1974 give us our powers to investigate adult social care complaints. Part 3 is for complaints where local councils provide services themselves. It also applies where a council arranges or commissions care services from a provider. In these cases, we treat the provider’s actions as if they were council actions. Part 3A is for complaints about care bought directly from a care provider by the person who needs it or their representative, and includes care funded privately or with direct payments using a personal budget. (Part 3 and Part 3A Local Government Act 1974; section 25(6) & (7) of the Act)
6. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint unless we are satisfied the organisation knows about the complaint and has had an opportunity to investigate and reply. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to notify the organisation of the complaint and give it an opportunity to investigate and reply. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(5), section 34(B)6)

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How I considered this complaint

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

My Assessment

9. I will not investigate as there is no evidence of fault with the Council’s response. This is because the Council was not responsible for the care. It did not arrange or commission the care which was privately arranged by Ms X and the other party to the jointly held Lasting Power of Attorney.
10. I consider Ms X’s complaints about the Care Agency are premature under our procedures, and, while we can consider complaints about privately arranged care, there is no evidence Ms X has complained to the Care Agency in the first instance.
11. The Council’s response to Ms X explains it was not responsible for the care provision, and it was only involved due to Ms X and the other party to the Power of Attorney disagreeing about the care provision. I note that the Council has also explained that Community Mental Health Services were overseeing Ms Y’s mental health needs.
12. We will not investigate as we are unlikely to find fault with the Council’s response.

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Final decision

13. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because it does not meet the tests in our Assessment Code on how we decide which complaints to investigate. There is no evidence of fault in the Council’s response.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman