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Case ref:201300585
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Date:January 2014
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Body:The City of Edinburgh Council
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Sector:Local Government
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Outcome:Some upheld, no recommendations
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Subject:complaints handling (incl social work complaints procedures)
Summary
Mrs C and her sister complained to the council about the care of their late mother (Mrs A). They said that when their mother was discharged from hospital a social worker had unreasonably placed her in a locked dementia ward rather than in a unit for frail elderly people. Their distress was compounded when Mrs A was assaulted by other residents. Mrs C then complained to us about the way the council had handled their complaint, as she said that information about the assaults her mother had been subjected to had been withheld from a committee.
We did not uphold the complaint about information, as our investigation found that the committee had access to all the complaints papers including evidence of the assaults that the council accepted that Mrs A had suffered. However, we did find that there had been unreasonable delay in the handling of Mrs C's complaint.