City of York Council has apologised after an investigation at a care home found instances of “poor care” of man with severe learning disabilities.
The man’s mother complained to the council after her son fell ill and was admitted to hospital in mid-2020.
A council safeguarding investigation identified various issues with his care, including poor record keeping, lack of evidence showing how he received personal care and missed opportunities to refer him to clinicians in the run up to his hospital admission.
Because the council commissioned the care home, it retained overall responsibility for the care provided.
The safeguarding report recommended various actions for improvement and the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman said it was satisfied it had improved its service.
The man’s mother did not want her son to return to the care home and he instead went to a nursing home outside of York before finally settling in a new care home, but this was delayed because the building was not yet finished and a Covid outbreak followed.
The woman later complained to the Ombudsman about aspects of this process, including a £3,500 bill from the council for his stay in the nursing home.
The Ombudsman said the council was not at fault for invoicing the woman, nor for the delays in moving her son to his final placement.
But the Ombudsman did find there was poor communication and confusion around payment of his fees.
It found that the council delayed commissioning the nursing home placement and putting funding in place, which caused the home to threaten to serve notice on her son.
The council has agreed to apologise to the woman and pay her £600 to remedy the injustice caused to her and her son.
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