Your hub for news and views on all issues affecting the health and care sector including regulatory updates, care home and domiciliary news, relevant case law and inquiries.
Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman good practice guide for care providers
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (“the
Ombudsman”) is a statutory body which investigates individual complaints about
all adult social care providers for the last 10 years. Its work includes investigating care homes and
domiciliary care, and care that is funded privately.
On 15 March 2019 the Ombudsman published a good practice
guide based on its experience of dealing with of complaints about care
providers. From a civil claims perspective, the significant point from this
report is that there has been an increase in care provider complaints made since
2010/11, coupled with an increase in complaints that are investigated and upheld
by the Ombudsman. This may well be due
to increased publicity surrounding social care, as well as knowledge of the
existence of the Ombudsman.
If complaints are upheld by the Ombudsman, then it will make
recommendations to put things right – in almost all cases the care provider
will follow the Ombudsman’s recommendations.
The most common areas where complaints are made in the
Ombudsman’s experience are:
Clear information regarding
fees/charges/contracts
Billing and invoices
Protection of patients’ belongings
Notice on contracts
Care planning
In relation to the last area, care planning, the report
highlights that quality care equals having in place up to date risk
assessments, assessments and care plans.
It is easy to see that if these documents aren’t kept up to date, and a
patient suffers an injury or disease, then a care provider may well face a civil claim for damages from the patient and/oror
their family.
The Ombudsman’s report also contains a useful guide for care
providers to acting on feedback and complaints.
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