The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this late complaint about the care home where Mr X’s late father was placed. There is no good reason for the delay which would justify us investigating now.
The complaint
Mr X complains about the care home where his late father was placed before he died. Mr X says the care home has ignored his repeated requests for information about and records for his father.
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) We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse effect 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 an investigation if we decide the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it relates to matters that occurred more than 12 months ago in 2020 and 2022. The law says people must bring complaints to us within 12 months of becoming aware of the matter, unless there are good reasons not to. There is not a good reason now to investigate events from four years ago, and we could not carry out a fair or meaningful investigation now in any event.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman