Council criticised after care home banned daughter from visiting mother

A Liverpool care home should not have banned a daughter from visiting her mother without warning, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has said.

The LGO warned that failings by care providers would be treated as failings by the council that booked the accommodation concerned.

This followed the daughter making a complaint about her mother’s treatment in the home. A doctor was also prevented from visiting.

The mother had been placed in a BUPA care home by Liverpool City Council, which when the daughter complained failed to investigate and instead told her to raise her concerns with the care company.

Ombudsman Michael King said the care home later told him the ban was imposed after a previous incident reported to the police concerning the behaviour of the daughter and her partner, but it could not provide any evidence that an incident had occurred or was reported the police.

Mr King said: “When awarding care contracts to independent providers, councils need to remember they can outsource the care but cannot outsource the responsibility for that care.

“In such circumstances, I will find any fault by a care provider to be fault by the council.”

He welcomed Liverpool’s acceptance of his recommendations, and BUPA’s “readiness to accept my recommendations and learn from this case”, although it no longer runs the home in question.

Both BUPA and the council had apologised. The latter will pay the daughter £750 and has undertaken to review its policies and procedures.

A Liverpool spokesman said: “We have fully accepted the findings of the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman and apologised to the complainant.

“We have reviewed our own policies and procedures and have implemented a new action plan and asked all of our care home providers to do the same as part of our commitment to making sure a similar situation can't arise in the future.”