To cut a very long story short. My wonderful Mum who had moderate AD fell in a care home during a week's respite and fractured her other hip. After 9 weeks in hospital during which she became doubly incontinent, failed to regain mobility and her dementia advanced considerably, she was discharged to a nursing home as she was now beyond the care of family and domiciliary careers.
I notified CQC and local authority(LA)on the day of Mum's fall as a safeguarding issue. Mum in same clothes she had arrived in three days earlier, had not been in bed at all in the hours leading to the fall which happened at 6am, and when I arrived at the home to await ambulance she was completely unattended by staff.
The LA opened a safeguarding enquiry but two months later closed it as were satisfied with care home's response, I requested they forward me the documents. When I looked at the docs I found that the falls risk assessment was dated retrospectively, interviews with staff about the fall were carried out 5 days later etc So I made a complaint to the LA about their safeguarding enquiry. In the light of my complaint the LA informed me two months later that they had made further recommendations to the service provider and conceded that more could have been done at the safeguarding enquiry stage to ensure it was as robust as possible. Not satisfied with this I contacted the Local Government Ombudsman(LGO) who pursued my complaint against the service provider and the LA. THe LGO has just recently made a decision. Both have to apologise for distress and uncertainty caused, and the care provider has to compensate Mum and I to the tune of £500. My main issue with this is that the LA have no minutes or written record of the safeguarding team's resolution meeting which took the decision that the care provider had responded satisfactorily to their enquiry, the LGO had requested these but the LA informed the LGO they had none. It seems to me they have not taken their safeguarding responsibilities seriously at all!!
THe thing is what can I do now, or am I at the end of my campaign??If I pursue this legally I risk using my Mum's funds, her only asset,the family home, was sold last autumn, hence Mum is self-funding, so I will be risking her capital. ALso might not have the support of my siblings who have shown no interest in this at all really. Any advice please.
PS This is my first post.
I notified CQC and local authority(LA)on the day of Mum's fall as a safeguarding issue. Mum in same clothes she had arrived in three days earlier, had not been in bed at all in the hours leading to the fall which happened at 6am, and when I arrived at the home to await ambulance she was completely unattended by staff.
The LA opened a safeguarding enquiry but two months later closed it as were satisfied with care home's response, I requested they forward me the documents. When I looked at the docs I found that the falls risk assessment was dated retrospectively, interviews with staff about the fall were carried out 5 days later etc So I made a complaint to the LA about their safeguarding enquiry. In the light of my complaint the LA informed me two months later that they had made further recommendations to the service provider and conceded that more could have been done at the safeguarding enquiry stage to ensure it was as robust as possible. Not satisfied with this I contacted the Local Government Ombudsman(LGO) who pursued my complaint against the service provider and the LA. THe LGO has just recently made a decision. Both have to apologise for distress and uncertainty caused, and the care provider has to compensate Mum and I to the tune of £500. My main issue with this is that the LA have no minutes or written record of the safeguarding team's resolution meeting which took the decision that the care provider had responded satisfactorily to their enquiry, the LGO had requested these but the LA informed the LGO they had none. It seems to me they have not taken their safeguarding responsibilities seriously at all!!
THe thing is what can I do now, or am I at the end of my campaign??If I pursue this legally I risk using my Mum's funds, her only asset,the family home, was sold last autumn, hence Mum is self-funding, so I will be risking her capital. ALso might not have the support of my siblings who have shown no interest in this at all really. Any advice please.
PS This is my first post.
