Unprecedented pressure: Learning from complaints about council and care provider actions during the COVID-19 pandemic (24 February 2022)

Summary

The COVID-19 pandemic placed unprecedented pressure on councils and care providers. A new report from the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman analyses just how those organisations coped.

Content

The Ombudsman investigates complaints about local councils and care providers in England, getting involved when things have gone badly wrong. This report, which analyses its cases over the first 18 months of the pandemic, shows that, by and large, councils and care providers weathered the unprecedented pressures they were under. But, when things did go wrong it had a serious impact on people’s lives.

Cases highlighted in the report include a woman who died from COVID-19 at a care home with poor infection control procedures which was then compounded by staff later trying to cover up the facts.

Another case involved a homeless family left to sofa surf then sleep in a tent at the height of the pandemic, after different departments of the same council failed to help them.

The Ombudsman’s report focuses on the lessons that can be learned from the complaints it has received about the pandemic and welcomes that, in many cases, councils and care providers are already using their experiences from the pandemic to consider how they can make improvements to services.