The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this late complaint about inconsistent information regarding a fall to Mr X’s Mother in March 2020. This is because we cannot add to the Council’s response or make a finding of the kind Mr X wants.
The complaint
Mr X complains that he was given different accounts of a fall his mother, Mrs A, had while living in a nursing home in 2020. He complains staff at the home were rude to him, did not allow him to visit Mrs A daily as he wanted and did not give him accurate information into the incident regarding her fall.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
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 has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended) The Ombudsman investigates 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 may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide: we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Mrs A has a fall in a nursing home where she was living. This incident occurred in March 2020.
Mr X says he was given different accounts of this incident. Sadly, Mrs A is now deceased, and we could not provide a remedy for any injustice an investigation might uncover. The Council explained initially there were no visible bruises, but they came out later. We could not add to this or make a different finding even if we investigated.
Mr X complains staff in the nursing home were disrespectful and rude to him and refused to allow him to visit his mother daily. This was in March 2020 during the Covid19 pandemic when the government placed restrictions on visits to care homes. It is unlikely we would find evidence of fault with this point even if we investigated. Mr X could have come to us in 2020 if he was concerned about the restrictions placed on him. We could not make a finding on perceived rudeness when we were not present.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s late complaint because we could not add to the Council’s response or make a finding of the kind Mr X wants.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman