Summary: Mrs A complains about the Council. Her complaints relate to the care of her parents at multiple care homes between 2021 and 2024. We will not investigate this complaint because it is late.

The complaint

1. Mrs A complains about Devon County Council. The complaints relate to the care of her parents, Mrs B and Mr C, at multiple care homes between 2021 and their deaths in 2023 and 2024 respectively. The care was arranged by the Council.
2. Mrs A says her parents experienced a very low quality of care throughout their involvement with the Council. She was upset and distressed at constantly having to speak to the Council about their care, and they had to move several times.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
4. 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, even if the council charges the person receiving the care. 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)
5. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered evidence provided by Mrs A as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.

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What I found

7. Mrs A complains about how the Council managed the care of both her parents, in several care homes, the oldest placement dates to 2021.
8. Mrs B died in 2023 and Mr C died in 2024.
9. Mrs A received a final response to her complaints in November 2024, but she did not bring her concerns to the Ombudsman until January 2026.
10. The law says we cannot consider complaints which are more than 12 months old if there is not good reason for us to do so. I asked Mrs A why she did not contact the Ombudsman sooner and she said she had had a virus, and her husband had surgery.
11. While I appreciate ill health may add delays to contacting the Ombudsman, the delay is 15 months after the final response from the Council. The more time passes between the events and a complaint, the more unlikely it is we can investigate them effectively, gather reliable evidence and reach a sound decision. In older cases we also may not be able to achieve a meaningful remedy because too many circumstances have changed. We are often unable to be able to show why events occurred or understand who was responsible.
12. There are no good reasons for us to investigate the complaints now.

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Decision

13. We will not investigate this complaint because it is late.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman