Carers fed dog food as well as stale and inedible food to an elderly woman, an investigation has found.
The months of care they provided to the woman in her own home has been branded “substandard”, after it also emerged they had provided her with medication in a manner where she was unable to independently access it.
Meanwhile, a statutory safeguarding inquiry by Portsmouth City Council sat unresolved for six months, the local government and social care ombudsman says.
The ombudsman’s report on Portsmouth City Council, who commissioned the homecare from Radis Community Care, found the woman was subjected to what the council itself described as a “catalogue of errors”.
The council’s own safeguarding inquiry found that staff allegedly faked records and failed to carry out some visits; ignored or were unaware of the woman’s care plan and failed to position her properly and support her with her mobility.
CCTV footage allegedly showed a care worker feeding the woman in a way the family considered forceful, and did not give her the recommended soft diet.
They also failed to monitor and accurately record her food and fluid intake, and left her for prolonged periods, on occasions leaving her wet or in darkness overnight.
One carer unintentionally fed the woman microwaved dog food, recorded in the daily log as a “lamb dinner”.
She was given three mouthfuls of the dog food from a vacuum pack stored in the freezer.
The family also discovered the woman’s Do Not Attempt Resuscitation (DNAR) document scrunched up in a cupboard, its details unknown to the care workers.
The woman’s mother, who had complained about her treatment in the months before she died, said the family were devastated and felt unable to grieve properly.
The ombudsman found the council had treated Radis’s own internal investigation as if it had discharged its own statutory duty, without launching any independent scrutiny, even though Radis was already subject to a separate large-scale safeguarding enquiry.
Local government and social care ombudsman Amerdeep Clarke said: “This is a truly shocking case, with abysmal failures.”
She said a vulnerable woman’s care deteriorated over many months while a statutory inquiry drifted without proper oversight.
“It is a stark reminder that a council’s safeguarding duty does not end when a contract is signed. Councils must actively scrutinise the care they commission, especially where concerns already exist about a provider.”
Portsmouth council, which said it no longer used Radis, has agreed to apologise to the family, refund the care fees for April to July 2024, and pay £1,000 for the distress caused.
Radis provides community-based social care and support to vulnerable adults and children in England and Wales.
A coroner found the woman died from frailty of old age.
Prime minister Andy Burnham has pledged to fix the social care crisis.
Baroness Louise Casey, who is leading an independent commission on adult social care, which will draw up recommendations on delivering a National Care Service, is asking the public for their views on the future of adult social care in England and funding it.
