North Yorkshire care provider Hamilton Care has been criticised after failing to respond to a local government and social care ombudsman’s investigation into its failure to properly record how it spent funds belonging to one of its residents.
Hamilton Care failed to provide a solicitor with relevant financial records for his client, one of Hamilton's residents; the solicitor having been appointed by the court as the resident’s dementia meant she was not able to look after her own finances.
The resident had been living in Hamilton Care’s The Lodge home, located in Scarborough, for six years, and funded her own care. The solicitor asked Hamilton Care to hand over the resident’s financial records on thirteen different occasions, but the provider failed to do so.
When the solicitor asked the ombudsman to investigate, the provider then failed to respond properly to the ombudsman, who subsequently issued Hamilton Care with an adverse findings notice and asked the care provider to apologise to the solicitor and pay him £150, which it has done, although Hamilton Care has yet to provide the relevant financial records to either the solicitor or the ombudsman.
Michael King, local government and social care ombudsman, said: “Instances of people having no relatives to look after them in and around their home area are becoming increasingly common. In this case, and in others like it, court appointed deputies will step in to ensure they are treated properly. However, the provider in this case cannot prove the woman’s money was spent appropriately because it has not provided either my office or the solicitor with the proper paperwork.
“It is in both care providers’ and residents’ best interests for providers to keep accurate and contemporaneous records of finances. Doing so could, for example, protect providers from suspicions of financial impropriety and residents from risk of financial abuse.”
