Decision Report 201701844

Summary

Mr C complained that the council failed to provide a reasonable standard of care to his elderly father (Mr A). Mr C said that care provision was often changed at short notice and that his father was left unattended for unreasonable periods of time. Mr C was concerned that contact with the council was always by phone and he felt that inadequate records had been kept of his concerns about the service. Mr C complained that communication from the council was inappropriate as mail was sent to Mr A, despite his lack of capacity and repeated requests for it to be sent directly to him instead. Mr C was also concerned that the council failed to handle his complaints reasonably.

We found that the overall standard of care provided to Mr A by the council was reasonable and we did not uphold this aspect of Mr C's complaint. We also found that the standard of record-keeping, on their electronic records system 'Caretrack', was inconsistent and that the council had failed to communicate reasonably with Mr C by not providing confirmation of changes in planned care provision in writing. Therefore, we upheld these aspects of Mr C's complaint. However, we noted that Mr C now had an email contact he could use.

Finally, we found that Mr C's complaints had not been handled reasonably as there was no clear evidence that the council had followed through on the actions they had said that they would take. We upheld this aspect of Mr C's complaint.

Recommendations

What we asked the organisation to do in this case:

• Mr A's care provision should be monitored for eight weeks to ensure that notification is provided when a carer is likely to be late or his care appointment time has to be changed.

What we said should change to put things right in future:

• Staff should ensure that Caretrack is an up-to-date and complete record of all contact.
• The operations team should provide a response to Mr C's request for written confirmation of contact with them.

In relation to complaints handling, we recommended:

• The council should include the definition of a complaint contained within the SPSO model complaints handling procedure in their care service handbook.

We have asked the organisation to provide us with evidence that they have implemented the recommendations we have made on this case by the deadline we set.