Has anyone had experience of making complaint to Local Government Ombudsman?

[Norfolkgirl]

Anyone written to LGO? Did they act as you expected?

My issue is in relation to Local Authority Adult Social Care and Police not acting/safeguarding in a suspected fraud/financial abuse situation against a vulnerable adult with dementia in care home. I have made official complaint to ASC and they won't budge their decision not to safeguard.

 

[Noorza]

Anyone written to LGO? Did they act as you expected?

My issue is in relation to Local Authority Adult Social Care and Police not acting/safeguarding in a suspected fraud/financial abuse situation against a vulnerable adult with dementia in care home. I have made official complaint to ASC and they won't budge their decision not to safeguard.

Have you tried Court of Protection, The Office of the Public Guardian or the Banking Ombudsman?

 

[Fed Up]

Please don't shoot me as I don't know about this but have you rung their office for advice as I did and the threat was enough to get the situation resolved. I was given a case number and the documents are sent to you for completion then you return them with copies of the documents of your case.

BUT mine was a case that directly involved the LA(SS)and the NHS and was the result of their direct action not one of a third party.

SO if you think fraud by a third party is involved wound'nt that be criminal law and a matter for the police? If its your relative and they have responsibility I'd say you need proper legal advice and very definitely proof or you could end up in trouble for making malicous accusations. And if you don't have proof they might not investigate for you and you'd need proof surely before any action was taken.
And I'm unclear whether you want them to act on your proof or investigate to find something out. I'd not reply on a public forum either but go directly to the Office of the Ombudsman for more advice.

I'm not sure you can get a LA involved in a private dispute between yourself and another person. So I strongly suggest you contact the Ombudsman and ask (they are helpful and it does'nt cost anything to ask) it might save you a huge waste of time filling in papers that they can't look at if its not within their remit.

As I say I don't know for sure and I hope someone else knows and can come along with much better advice. Sometimes life is so unfair on the less able. You really do have my sympathy and do seek more advice to either resolve the situation or put your mind at rest.

 

[Norfolkgirl]

Thank you both Noorza and Fedup. I have sought advice from a solicitor who said it's a Police matter. Police won't do anything until Social Services say so. SS won't safeguard the victim because she "has mental capacity" to consent and "hasn't" consented. It is not just family involved, but care home staff and others. She doesn't have mental capacity to manage her finances which I can prove if she were asked to demonstrate what she thinks is the case and even if she did have m. cap, it was compromised by the fraud which is still ongoing i.e. never resolved. I believe that regardless of mental capacity of the victim, the Police should still investigate due to my concerns the crime has potentially extended to care home staff because they have protected the victim's abuser, their correspondence to me is indicative of this. I have huge amounts of evidence. Police not interested, MP not interested. Was told by a Social Worker from a different area, off the record, that SS and Police are not doing their job in this case (multidisciplinary agencies should work together) and should investigate, with a crime reference number as proof of investigation, this has never happened. The off the record SW said I should challenge Police and take it to LGO and IPCC. Interesting the fact that Government backed policies state that even if one has mental capacity, being financially exploited should not be assumed it is not theft. See http://www.scie.org.uk/publications/reports/report50.pdf - particularly pages 223 and http://www.leedssafeguardingadults.org.uk/documents/guidance/no_secrets.pdf pages 8 to 12. I reckon SS/Police don't want to take these cases on and are using excuse of victim having mental capacity and won't pursue matters. The victim is easily swayed by whomever she takes advice from, including myself and she has actually dialled 101 to report it, they fobbed her off. If you think about it, in news of so many instances of child grooming cases where SS and Police knew about it and did nothing, this is exactly what I believe is happening in other cases like mine and SS/Police have come to an unofficial agreement between themselves to avoid taking on cases.

 

[Norfolkgirl]

Have you tried Court of Protection, The Office of the Public Guardian or the Banking Ombudsman?

Yes have tried COP and OPG and they just refer me back to SS and Police.

Not sure about Banking Ombudsman.

 

[Fed Up]

Oh dear Norfolk Girl how frustrating for you and the situation is deplorable. You may well be right it all seems to come down to lack of resources. I dread to think how this situation could end but please look to yourself no matter how bad it is, you've done your best and dreadful to say perhaps it might be best to walk away. That sounds so bad but I'm concerned it will make you ill and the stress is appalling.
The LA must have a CEO I'd ring their office and perhaps get a local paper on the case. Sometimes the threat of a journalist helps. No LA wants a journo pocking around. Why does the MP not help is he/she generally useless?
Just please be careful it sounds like your dealing with clever but nasty people and they will stoop to any level to get their own way, and that could be making you look the villain. Keep your head high and those moral standards up, fortunately their are more of us than of them and what goes around comes around.

 

[MaddenedMick]

I checked out a London council some years ago, and found that the LGO did not find for the resident once in three years. It isn't worth a broken biscuit.

Check your council here:
http://www.lgo.org.uk/CouncilsPerformance/

Have you tried the newspapers, Channel4's Dispatches or BBC's Panorama? (there are others).

 

[Norfolkgirl]

I checked out a London council some years ago, and found that the LGO did not find for the resident once in three years. It isn't worth a broken biscuit.

Check your council here:
http://www.lgo.org.uk/CouncilsPerformance/

Have you tried the newspapers, Channel4's Dispatches or BBC's Panorama? (there are others).

Wow, thanks for that MaddenedMick! That is very useful info. According to this site in my area they received 150 complaints for the year compared with London Borough of 79 complaints.

Have tried to call one local paper, hanging on the phone forever with no answer and I emailed the same, who hasn't yet responded. I would love to try the others you suggested.

Would you, or anyone else know reading this, if I were to receive a decision by LGO, bearing in mind that what they say is final and I cannot go any further, if I went to a solicitor privately would the solicitor refuse to help just because the LGO says not?

 

[nitram]

The LGO decision cannot be appealed against but the legal basis of the decision can be challenged.

"...There is no right of appeal against a decision by the LGO, but it is possible to seek judicial review where it is believed that the legal basis of a decision is flawed..."

Front page

www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/SN04117.pdf‎

 

[Norfolkgirl]

The LGO decision cannot be appealed against but the legal basis of the decision can be challenged.

"...There is no right of appeal against a decision by the LGO, but it is possible to seek judicial review where it is believed that the legal basis of a decision is flawed..."

Front page

www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/SN04117.pdf‎

Thanks Nitram that's really quite useful. Another question I pose then, am I too late for complaining to the LGO?

The incident first occurred in March 2010, I then involved the care home who refused to safeguard the victim. I then made referral to Adult Social Care Jan 2011 and have been "fighting" with them since, up until July this year. I wasn't aware of LGO until someone advised me, only earlier this year and have been debating ever since whether to complain to local Police (and possibly IPCC) for failing to investigate or whether to go through LGO to complain as SS didn't investigate in partnership with Police where they are supposed to. Am I too late as it should be within a year of being aware of what I'm complaining about and it is more than that. SS replied to my complaint in July advising I could refer it to LGO so in effect, they are saying I can still do this.

 

[FifiMo]

Hiya,

Just so you are aware of the role of the LGO. .The LGO (or any other Ombudsman) cannot tell the LA what to do; all it can do is to look at is whether or not the LA followed their own procedures. It can’t influence the decisions made by the LA. Nor can it change the decisions made. All it can do is to make recommendations to the LA that the LA is under no obligation to follow, although they often do.

If you suspect financial fraud/abuse, you were right to have involved the police. Fraud is a criminal offence..so, IPCC seems a reasonable route to pursue if the police refused to investigate a crime.

Fiona

 

[Norfolkgirl]

Hiya,

Just so you are aware of the role of the LGO. .The LGO (or any other Ombudsman) cannot tell the LA what to do; all it can do is to look at is whether or not the LA followed their own procedures. It can’t influence the decisions made by the LA. Nor can it change the decisions made. All it can do is to make recommendations to the LA that the LA is under no obligation to follow, although they often do.

If you suspect financial fraud/abuse, you were right to have involved the police. Fraud is a criminal offence..so, IPCC seems a reasonable route to pursue if the police refused to investigate a crime.

Fiona

Thanks Fiona, I too thought this route would be best. I have had it on good authority by a Social Worker in a different area though that it always comes down to safeguarding the victim because they are vulnerable and in that regard it is up to SS to involve the Police. The SW I sought advice from said they would gather the evidence/info as far as possible and then have Police involved which is crucial who can then delve deeper and gain authority in checking the bank transactions of the victim etc. I think I will write to all of them.

 

[Fed Up]

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