The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the care provided to her late mother Mrs Y in a home commissioned by the Council. An investigation by us would not add to the care home and Council’s previous investigation nor lead to a different outcome. There is no worthwhile outcome an investigation would now achieve.
The complaint
Mrs X is the late Mrs Y’s daughter Mrs Y was in a care home commissioned by the Council. Mrs X complains the care home lacked care and consideration and neglected her mother. Mrs X feels sad about the way Mrs Y was treated. She wants the care home to retrain staff and recruit people who care about their role.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
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: we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation; or further investigation would not lead to a different outcome; or there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information from Mrs X and the Council, and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Mrs X considers the home did not give Mrs Y appropriate care during her stay. The issues she raised included Mrs Y’s food, toileting, personal care, monitoring of her condition and staff attitudes towards her. The care home investigated Mrs X’s concerns by speaking to staff involved, reviewing its care records and contacts with Mrs X and found no evidence of neglect or lack of care. The Council considered the care home’s responses to the complaint and did not alter the findings. The home gathered relevant information from Mrs X and its staff to investigate her concerns and provide its findings to Mrs X. There would be no new or additional evidence available to an investigation by us into Mrs X’s care provision which would allow us to add to the investigations already done by the care home and Council. An investigation by us would not lead to a different outcome here so we will not investigate.
We recognise Mrs X would have been caused upset by some of the issues she had with Mrs Y’s care. But if there were failures in the way the home provided Mrs Y’s care, the injustice caused by any such fault would have been primarily to Mrs Y. We cannot provide a remedy to Mrs Y as she has died, so there would be no worthwhile outcome investigation by us would now achieve. We will not investigate where an investigation cannot provide a remedy because the person who could have been affected has died. We note the outcome Mrs X wants from her complaint is for the care home to train and improve its staff. But investigation to pursue that outcome would no longer provide any benefit to Mrs X because she is no longer involved with the home, so we will not do so.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because: an investigation would not add to the care home and Council’s investigation; and an investigation would not reach a different outcome; and there is no worthwhile outcome investigation by us would achieve.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman