Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about missing items belonging to his deceased mother. This is because the injustice is not significant enough. Even if we were to investigate, we could not say what happened to the items or provide a worthwhile outcome for Mr X.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Mr X, complained about missing items belonging to his deceased mother (Mrs Y). Mr X noticed the items were missing after he collected his mother’s possessions from a residential care provider. The missing items include two bottles of alcoholic drinks, a small Christmas tree, and two bottles of soft drinks. Mr X is unhappy with the response he has received from the care provider which referred to “differing accounts”. Mr X is worried other residents could have items stolen.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Ombudsman investigates complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide:

• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by Mr X.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
5. I gave Mr X the opportunity to comment on a draft decision and took into account his comments.

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My assessment

6. I understand how upset Mr X is that some of his mother’s possessions are missing. But the injustice to Mr X is not enough to warrant an investigation by the Ombudsman. Even if we were to investigate, we could never say what happened to the items. We could not therefore achieve a worthwhile outcome. I know Mr X is worried other residents of the care provider could be affected in a similar way. But we do not investigate complaints about what might happen. Mr X is also unhappy with how the care provider and council dealt with his complaint. It is not, however, a good use of our resources to investigate complaint handling as a standalone issue. We will not therefore investigate.

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Final decision

7. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint. This is because the injustice is not significant enough and we could not achieve a worthwhile outcome for Mr X.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman