Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about decisions the Council made about Mrs X’s late mother’s care support. This is because further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complained about the Council’s decision not to place her mother (Mrs Y) into a care home.
2. Mrs X said this caused extreme emotional distress and the family had to pay for her mother’s care before she sadly passed away.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide further investigation would not lead to a different outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Mrs X complained about the Council’s decision not to place Mrs Y into a care home when she asked it for support. Mrs X said she was providing most of her mother’s care which was difficult due to her deteriorating health.
7. Mrs X said after a social worker visited Mrs Y, they concluded she did not need to go into a care home. Mrs X and her family disagreed and placed Mrs Y into a care home with care provider A, where she sadly passed away a number of weeks later.
8. After the death of her mother, Mrs X complained to the Council.
9. In its complaint response, the Council accepted it should have explored immediate but temporary solutions while looking at a longer-term support plan for Mrs Y, when it first responded to Mrs X’s request for support. It apologised it had not considered this at the time and agreed to reimburse the cost of Mrs Y’s care while she was resident with care provider A.
10. The Council also offered a remedy for Mrs X’s distress and took steps to prevent a recurrence of its earlier fault.
11. Whilst I acknowledge this likely does not take away the distress for Mrs X, I believe this to be an appropriate remedy.
12. Mrs X also believed the Council should reimburse her for overnight care she arranged for Mrs Y before she moved to the care home. On balance, it appears once it was involved the Council reviewed the available information to decide whether it should provide overnight care, however decided it was not warranted. The Council also reviewed its decision during its complaint investigation and agreed with this decision. The Council’s replies appear reasonable and further investigation would not change this outcome for Mrs X.
13. On balance I do not believe an Ombudsman investigation would achieve anything further and for this reason, we will not investigate this complaint.

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Final decision

14. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman