The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has called on care providers and councils to improve end of life care after identifying recurring failures in complaints investigations, including poor communication with families, inadequate care planning and insensitive handling of deaths.
In a new report, No Second Chances: What Complaints Teach Us About End of Life Care, the ombudsman said families were not always informed when a loved one's condition deteriorated, while some relatives were denied opportunities to say goodbye or were treated without compassion following a death.
Case studies include families not being contacted in time before a relative died, a daughter learning of her mother's death before receiving any condolences, and a woman discovering more than a year later that her cousin had died and been buried.
Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman Amerdeep Clarke said: "Most of us will face the death of someone we love. How that experience unfolds, whether we feel informed, included and treated with kindness, or left confused and shut out, becomes part of how we remember that person and how we grieve them."
She added: "The changes we are asking for do not require significant new investment. They require compassion, good planning, and a genuine commitment to treating every dying person as a human being with people who love them."
Communication and coordination
Care Quality Commission (CQC) guidance states providers should involve people and their families in planning and decision-making, record and act on individuals' preferences, and support relatives when someone dies.
The National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) quality standards also emphasise advance care planning, coordinated care and support for families and carers as core components of high-quality end of life care.
The ombudsman's report includes practical guidance and self-assessment questions for councils and providers to help improve on issues it highlights, including visiting arrangements, poor coordination between services and disputes over charges after death.
Ms Clarke said the report was intended to help care homes and councils reflect on whether every family could "look back on this time with as much comfort as possible", adding: "There is only one chance to get this right."
