Decision Report 201901564

Summary

Mr C complained about how the partnership assessed his late mother's (Ms A) care needs following her admission to hospital. Prior to her admission, Ms A had been living in her own home with the support of family.

Before Ms A was discharged from hospital, a social work assessment was carried out to find out whether it was safe for her to return home. This assessment included a meeting with Mr C and other family members. Mr C stated that he provided the social worker with a document outlining a proposal for Ms A to stay in her own home. He also asked the social worker to visit Ms A's property to see the measures already put in place but this invitation was turned down. The social worker felt that a care home was the best option for Ms A. Mr C and his family agreed to this but also provided the social worker with the document containing the alternative proposal. Ms A died a few months after moving into the care home.

Mr C complained about how the partnership carried out the social work assessment. He stated that the views of him and his family were not fully taken into account as part of the assessment. In addition to this, he felt the assessment report was not an accurate reflection of Ms A’s circumstances or the level of support her family would provide, had she remained in her own home.

We took independent advice from a social worker. We found that the partnership unreasonably failed to carry out an appropriate assessment of Ms A's care needs. We acknowledged that the content of the assessment appeared reasonable. However, we considered that more exploration and consideration of Mr C’s proposal for Ms A to stay in her own home should have been given. This meant the partnership did not take into account all relevant information and evidence when considering what outcome was most appropriate to meet Ms A's care needs. Furthermore, we noted that the partnership accepted that they should have arranged a visit to Ms A's property to view the current set up.

Finally, we concluded that the partnership unreasonably failed to produce an accurate and appropriate assessment report. We noted that the partnership acknowledged that a statement repeatedly made in the assessment relating to the level of help Ms A would receive, did not accurately reflect the reality of the situation. Furthermore, we concluded that the assessment report did not contain sufficient detail of Mr C’s proposal. This meant it did not accurately and appropriately reflect the substance of the meeting with the family or the full range of care options for Ms A. We upheld all of Mr C's complaints.

Recommendations

What we asked the organisation to do in this case:

• Apologise to Mr C for failing to appropriately consider information he provided when they were assessing Ms A’s care needs and when they produced the subsequent assessment report. The apology should meet the standards set out in the SPSO guidelines on apology available at www.spso.org.uk/information-leaflets .

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

• Assessments carried out by the partnership should appropriately take into account information provided by the service user, their representative or their family. Information provided or offered to the partnership should be explored appropriately. Assessment reports produced by the partnership should contain an accurate reflection of the service user’s circumstances and accurately detail the relevant information and evidence involved in carrying out the assessment.

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.