Source · SPSO (Scottish Public Services Ombudsman)

The City of Edinburgh Council

SPSO (Scottish Public Services Ombudsman) Partly Upheld Reference 201300585 Sector Local Government Category complaints handling (incl social work complaints procedures) Decided 01 January 2014

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Full decision

Summary

Mrs C and her sister complained to the council about the care of their late mother (Mrs A). They said that when their mother was discharged from hospital a social worker had unreasonably placed her in a locked dementia ward rather than in a unit for frail elderly people. Their distress was compounded when Mrs A was assaulted by other residents. Mrs C then complained to us about the way the council had handled their complaint, as she said that information about the assaults her mother had been subjected to had been withheld from a committee.

We did not uphold the complaint about information, as our investigation found that the committee had access to all the complaints papers including evidence of the assaults that the council accepted that Mrs A had suffered. However, we did find that there had been unreasonable delay in the handling of Mrs C's complaint.

Related reading

View Decision Report 201300585 as a PDF (11 KB) Updated: March 13, 2018

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