Decision Report 201304213

Summary

Ms C, who is an advocacy worker, complained to us on behalf of her client (Mr A). Mr A said that he had complained to the board some time ago about care and treatment he received. Having received no reply, he asked Ms C to complain on his behalf. For a period of around 15 months the advocacy service tried to make Mr A's complaints or receive updates on them. Having received no response they then complained to us.

After making enquiries of the board, we found evidence that they received most of the letters and emails sent by the advocacy worker between September 2012 and November 2013, but that of 15 contacts, only four were directly responded to. Having considered the circumstances and the content of the letters and emails, we considered this unreasonable and we upheld the complaint. The board had, however, taken action before we became involved to try to ensure that a similar situation would not recur, so our recommendations related only to apologies for the failure.

Recommendations

We recommended that the board:

• apologise to Mr A that they did not respond reasonably to complaints and subsequent correspondence raised on his behalf; and
• apologise to Ms C that they did not respond reasonably to complaints and subsequent correspondence raised on Mr A's behalf.