A care provider has been found at fault by the Ombudsman after a family complained their mother had been treated roughly by a member of staff.

The complaint about care provided by Care UK resulted in the member of staff being suspended and later dismissed.

The Ombudsman found the provider did not handle the complaint of the mother’s son, referred to as Mr B, properly and did not always address the issues raised.

He found the care provider sometimes relied on contact with Mr B’s sister and took too long to respond to his complaints.

While the Ombudsman found Care UK responded properly to the rough handling incident in June 2022 and carried out a robust investigation and put changes in place to supervision to strengthen safeguarding, the provider did not always communicate with Mr B properly on the issue and took three months to offer to meet with him to discuss further details of the incident after becoming aware of it.

Furthermore, the care provider did not offer Mr B contact information for the police until November 2022.

The incident was one of a number of complaints registered by Mr B over the care of his mother, Mrs Y, who has sadly subsequently died.

The Ombudsman recommended that the provider should pay £600 to the family for distress caused and failure to treat Mrs Y with dignity and respect.

Care UK’s regional director, Angela Zuraw said: “We pride ourselves on offering kind, safe and dignified care to all residents in our homes and would like to offer our apologies once again to the family involved. Although we acted quickly and thoroughly in relation to some aspects of this complaint, we have more work to do in ensuring relatives feel better supported when they have concerns. We are working to implement the recommendations provided so that we can improve in the future.”