The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s care provision to the late Ms X. This is because the complaint is late and an investigation would not achieve any worthwhile outcome.
The complaint
Mrs Y complains on behalf of her late mother Ms X, that the Council failed to provide adequate care to Ms X and did not address safeguarding concerns from 2017 to 2019.
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 there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B)) 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)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Mrs Y.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Mrs Y’s complaint to us is late and I see no good reason to exercise discretion.
Even if I did exercise discretion on time, an investigation would not achieve anything worthwhile. I say this because we cannot remedy any harm or distress caused to Ms X as she has since passed away. And, we have no power to award compensation to Ms X’s estate or otherwise. Further, there is no public interest reason to investigate. And, given the time passed since the matters complained of, it is unlikely any service improvement recommendations would be useful.
Final decision
We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because it is late and there is no worthwhile outcome achievable.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman