A woman suffered diet and skin problems because the nursing home her council placed her in failed to meet her cultural needs, a watchdog has determined.
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman said Sandwell Council did not do enough to establish the woman’s cultural needs when formalising her care plan.
The woman’s family complained that the nursing home she was then placed in did not provide the care outlined in the plan, which included specialist hair and skin care, Caribbean meals and pureed food.
The ombudsman concluded that the woman did not always get the care she needed.
Ombudsman Paul Najsarek said: ‘Councils must have care services available that reflect the people they serve.
‘So I am concerned that the council says it has no care providers that can meet the cultural needs of people like the woman in this case.’
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.’
They added: ‘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.’
