A West Midlands council has apologised and agreed to reimburse a portion of paid care fees after a Caribbean woman’s family complained a nursing home had not met her cultural needs.

A Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman investigation found the care plan developed for the woman by the council failed to take account of her individual rights in line with the requirements of the Equalities Act. It also found the council did not do enough to establish the woman’s cultural needs when formalising her care plan.

The woman’s family complained her hair was damaged because of neglect and her food contained lumps, despite her being assessed as needing a pureed diet.

The home’s care notes indicated that hair oil and moisturiser were only applied on 29 days during the woman’s 20 month stay – just 4% of the time she was there, despite the service’s agreement that her hair be combed out, oiled and plaited, that it would use hair products as directed by her daughters and it would moisturise her skin after personal care.

A Sandwell Council spokesperson said: “We fully accept the Ombudsman’s decision that the high standards we expect and the resident’s cultural needs were not met in this case. We have apologised to both the resident and her family and will put in place all measures that the Ombudsman has recommended.

“We have written to care providers and relevant staff to ensure they are aware of the statutory guidance which says care plans should be built holistically around people’s wishes and feelings, their needs and values, and we will undertake regular audits to make sure that this is the case. We will communicate with families to ensure expectations are realistic and are managed appropriately.

“We are proud to be an ethnically diverse borough so are in the process of developing a strategy detailing how we intend to work with the care market to meet the cultural needs of people living in Sandwell.”

The council agreed to apologise to the family and reimburse 20% of the contributed care fees they paid, along with £1,000 to the woman to acknowledge the distress caused and a further £500 to the family.