Decision report 201004546

Summary
Mr C alleged that social work services were unhelpful with regard to the care of his late mother, who had dementia. He said that he was not properly involved in her care and was pushed into making decisions. He felt that when he made a formal complaint about the matter, the council showed a reluctance to deal with it and did not investigate appropriately.
Specifically, Mr C told us that the council unreasonably failed to provide patient transport to take his mother to respite care; for 21 months unreasonably failed to provide information on his mother's care and made inappropriate decisions about her care; unreasonably failed to remove a social worker from Mr C's mother's case; and failed to handle the complaint properly.

We did not uphold Mr C's complaints. Our investigation revealed that no request had ever been made to transport Mr C's mother to respite care, nor had she been identified as requiring transport. In any case, there was no requirement for the council to offer this. The records showed that Mr C had been appropriately involved in decision making and had been kept fully informed. While it was clear that Mr C wanted a named social worker removed from his mother's case, he did not give reasons despite being asked to do so. In the circumstances, and as continuity was considered to be important to Mr C's mother, no change was made. The records also confirmed that the council had handled Mr C's complaint satisfactorily, and that he had failed to provide evidence to support his complaint, again despite being asked to do so.