Agenda item

RESPONSE TO THE OMBUDSMAN PUBLIC INTEREST REPORT

To note the draft section of the Adult Children and Health O&S Minutes relating to the response to the Ombudsman Public Interest Report.  Report considered available at https://rbwm.moderngov.co.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=598&MId=7640&Ver=4

Minutes:

The Deputy Chairman of Cabinet, Adult Social Care, Children’s Services, Health and Mental Health reported that this was an unfortunate incident that he had apologised to all those affected.  The report had been considered by overview and scrutiny and he wished to reiterate what had been expressed at that meeting.  This had been a regrettable incident and that improvements had been implemented.   He asked the Director of Adults, Health and Commissioning to address Cabinet.

 

The Director of Adults, Health and Commissioning informed that the actions of the Royal Borough and Optalis were the subject of a public interest report by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman on 3 September 2020. This dealt with events from 2018 and complaints that the council did not properly consider the risks of separating a couple, after 59 years of marriage, or of the husband subsequently living on his own.  There were complaints about the quality of care the council provided to them both, as well as concerns about the way in which the complainant’s were dealt with.

 

The Ombudsman upheld the complaints and found fault causing injustice and recommendations were made.    This was reported to the Adult, Children’s and Health Overview and Scrutiny Panel in September 2020.  It was unacceptable what happened and on behalf of herself, the service and the council, she once again offered her sincere, heartfelt and unreserved apologies to the family. The council was committed to ensuring that this never happens again and improvements had been implemented.

 

The first was the assessment and management of care for those in need of adult social care support.  A new assessment methodology was introduced in 2016 but it was not consistently introduced across the whole service which meant, particularly in this case, that two members of the same family were assessed in different ways.  That has been completely changed.  A fundamental review of the methodology had been undertaken with new procedures, and forms being introduced and applied across the whole service.

 

In 2019, a Quality Assurance Panel was introduced to provide oversight of packages of care.  When the worker and their manager present the package of care proposed for a resident, this Panel now requires them also to evidence what the impact of that recommendation will be on someone living with or considered to be a significant person in the resident’s life.  This is an important assurance mechanism and further mandatory guidance has also been issued in this respect.

 

All such cases that were already open to the service have now been completely reviewed by the Director of Statutory Services in Optalis.  This review is scheduled to be repeated routinely as part of the overall quality assurance arrangements in the service going forward.

 

With regards to domiciliary care it was essential that we safeguard the quality of care received and to that end, we have employed a dedicated officer within the council who is responsible for monitoring the performance of our domiciliary care providers.  Part of that monitoring also involves contacting families who are receiving care to check that their expectations are being met.  The Overview and Scrutiny Panel dealt at length with this aspect of the complaint and it was confirmed that the Care Quality Commission were requested to carry out an inspection of the agency concerned as a matter of urgency.

 

What was clear in this case which involved a number of agencies was that the complaints process became increasingly complicated and no one person had overall coordination and oversight of the various strands of the complaint.  To that end, we have introduced a system where a senior manager is responsible for overseeing each complaint with the final response being quality assured by the Director of Statutory Services before it is issued.

 

The Leader of Cabinet informed that he had attended the overview and scrutiny panel and wished to reiterate the apologies given to the failing to the family.

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