Summary: The Ombudsmen will not investigate Mrs N’s complaint about her brother Mr D’s care and support from the Council and Trust in November and December 2018. The complaint is late and we have not seen sufficient reasons to investigate it now.

The complaint

1. Mrs N complains about the Council and Trust’s care and support for her brother Mr D in November and December 2018. Mr D has a significant learning disability and does not have capacity to make the complaint himself. Mrs N complains about arrangements for her brother’s discharge from hospital to a care home placement, and about her brother’s care in hospital.
2. Mrs N said the care home placement was not suitable for her brother’s needs, which caused him and his family unnecessary distress. Mr D had to go back into hospital within two days, and a different placement was arranged. Mrs N also said her brother did not receive the right care in hospital, which worsened his condition and again caused him and his family avoidable distress. Mrs N said the events caused difficulties in the relationship between the family and health and social care services.
3. Mrs N wants an independent view of the complaint issues and full answers to her complaints. She also wants acknowledgement of failings in her brother’s care, and of the longer-term impact these failings had.

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The Ombudsmen’s role and powers

4. The Ombudsmen have the power to jointly consider complaints about health and social care. Since April 2015, these complaints have been considered by a single team acting on behalf of both Ombudsmen. (Local Government Act 1974, section 33ZA, and Health Service Commissioners Act 1993, section 18ZA)
5. The Ombudsmen cannot investigate late complaints unless they decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to the Ombudsmen about something an organisation has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended, and Health Service Commissioners Act 1993, section 9(4).)

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How I considered this complaint

6. During my consideration of this complaint, I spoke to Mrs N and read the information she sent me. I also looked at the complaint responses and correspondence with the Council and Trust, and I asked them for information about how they had handled Mrs N’s complaints, which I then considered.
7. I shared a draft decision with Mrs N and I considered the comments she made on it before reaching a final view.

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What I found

Events

8. Mr D went into hospital in early November 2018. His family had been caring for him at home before he went into hospital. Staff from the Learning Disability and Learning Disability Social Work Team assessed Mr D in hospital to decide on a suitable placement for him to be discharged to. They also spoke with Mrs N and Mr D’s wider family about this.
9. Hospital doctors initially felt Mr D would need to be discharged to a mental health unit, but later decided a care home placement would best suit and meet his needs. Staff from a specialist care home placement came to the hospital to assess Mr D, and to speak with Trust and Council staff and Mrs N about his needs.
10. Mr D was discharged to the specialist care home placement in early December, but returned to hospital two days later as the placement felt it could not meet his needs. Mr D stayed in hospital until mid-January 2019, when he was discharged to a different specialist placement.
11. Mrs N said while Mr D was in hospital he did not get some of his medication and nurses lied about this. Mrs N also said Mr D suffered injuries in hospital including a burn on his shoulder and bleeding and bruising on his feet.

Complaints

12. Mrs N emailed the Council to complain on 10 December 2018. She complained about various issues including the change of discharge destination, how the Council and Trust had assessed Mr D’s needs, and about them not properly involving Mr D’s family in decisions. She also complained the Council and Trust had not shared all relevant information about her brother’s needs with the care home placement.
13. The Council did not formally respond to the complaint until 20 January 2020, 13 months later. It apologised for the delay and said this was due to Mr D’s social worker not passing on the complaint information.
14. Mr D’s social worker had already addressed some of the issues in Mrs N’s complaint to the Council in an email of 5 December 2018.
15. Mrs N complained separately to the Trust on 2 January 2019, about some of the above matters and also about Mr D’s care in hospital.
16. The Trust provided formal complaint responses to Mrs N on 2 April and 28 August 2019.
17. Mrs N complained to the Ombudsmen about these events in August 2020.

Analysis

18. We expect complaints to be made to us within 12 months of a person becoming aware of the issues they wish to complain about. If complaints come to us after 12 months we consider them to be ‘late’. In some circumstances we may still be able to investigate even if a complaint is late.
19. Mrs N complained to the Ombudsmen in August 2020 about events that happened in November and December 2018. This means her complaint to us is outside the 12-month time limit and is late. I have carefully considered the reasons Mrs N has given for not complaining to us sooner, to decide whether there are good reasons for the delay and that we should investigate her complaint even though it is late.
20. I have not seen sufficient reasons for us to investigate Mrs N’s complaint about events in November and December 2018 now.
21. Mrs N said she did not complain to the Ombudsmen until August 2020 because some of the complaint issues were ongoing, and she was dealing with several different complaints at the same time. She also said the Council assigned Mr D a new social worker in January 2020, and the family had hoped this would resolve the earlier problems and they could move forward but this did not happen.
22. Mrs N said the Trust did not answer some of her complaint issues, and she waited a long time for it to answer her outstanding concerns before giving up and complaining to the Ombudsmen. Mrs N also said she was waiting for information from a different Trust about another related complaint, and she did not get this until January 2020.
23. Mrs N said more generally, she has been very busy during 2020 dealing with other matters relating to Mr D and she had some health issues in March. She said these matters affected her ability and time to bring this complaint to the Ombudsmen.
24. The information I have seen shows there was a significant delay in the Council formally responding to Mrs N’s complaint, which it accepts and has apologised for. I appreciate this delay is likely to have been frustrating for Mrs N and will have impacted on when she complained to the Ombudsmen. However, I have not seen any evidence that Mrs N followed up the Council’s outstanding response to her complaint until November 2019, 11 months after she had made it. Also, she did not then bring that complaint to the Ombudsmen for a further seven months.
25. Mrs N received the Trust’s final complaint response in August 2019 but did not bring this complaint to the Ombudsmen for a further 12 months. Mrs N said she was waiting for the Trust to respond to outstanding questions which caused a delay. The Trust told us it did not have any contact from Mrs N about this complaint after August 2019, and Mrs N has not sent us any evidence to show she was in further contact with the Trust. I have also noted that Mrs N received the information she was waiting for about a different complaint in January 2020, but did not then complain to us for a further six months.
26. I appreciate that Mrs N has been through a very challenging period which she says has impacted on her ability to pursue her various complaints. I also accept there was a significant delay in the Council’s complaint response. However, taking everything into account, I have not seen sufficient reason for the significant delay in Mrs N bringing this complaint to the Ombudsmen. On that basis, I have not seen grounds for us to exercise our discretion and set aside the 12-month time limit to consider this late complaint.

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Decision

27. The Ombudsmen will not investigate Mrs N’s complaint about events in November and December 2018. Although I recognise her strength of feeling about these matters, the complaint is late and I have not seen sufficient reasons for us to investigate it now.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman