Industry News | Aug 03, 2026 | 1 Comment |
No second chances
End of Life Care: No Second Chances
Many of us will face the moment when someone we love needs end of life care, whether in a care home, at home with support, or in a council-funded placement. How that care is delivered does not just affect the person who is dying: it shapes how their family grieves, and how they remember those final days, for years to come.
Mistakes made at the end of a loved one’s life cannot be corrected. But unlike almost any other public service failure, there is one chance to get it right, and the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) is calling on councils and care providers to take that opportunity, every time.
Complaints highlight common failures
The report, No Second Chances: What Complaints Teach Us About End of Life Care, sets out the most common failures seen in the complaints it receives: poor communication with families, inadequate care plans, services not working together, insensitive handling of death notifications, difficulties around visiting, and unfair charges after death.
Real cases drawn from the ombudsman’s work illustrate the human cost of these failings: families not called in time to say goodbye, a daughter learning of her mother’s death before anyone offered condolences, and a woman who discovered her cousin had died over a year earlier, her grave unmarked and overgrown.
Human values more important than money
The report sets out what families have a right to expect: to be kept informed as a loved one’s condition changes; to be treated with warmth and honesty; to have the person they love cared for as an individual, with their own wishes and preferences respected. And when the worst happens, to receive the news with the sensitivity and compassion it deserves.
These things do not require significant extra resources or investment. They simply need more compassion and a human touch. These are acts of basic humanity, and they shape how families grieve for years to come.
Amerdeep Clarke, Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, 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. Those memories do not fade.
“We know that the people working in care homes and councils want to do their best for the people they look after. This report is for them. It is a practical guide to help them ask honestly: could every family we work with look back on this time with as much comfort as possible?
“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. There is only one chance to get this right. We want to help the sector take it.”
The report includes practical guidance and self-review questions for councils and care providers on end of life care.
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Further reading and resources
You can download the full report here (PDF file will open in a new browser tab or window)
Bridging the Gap: why are end-of-life wishes not being heard?
The Public Health Service Ombudsman has also produced a report on end of life care recently
More about the work of the LGSCO
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Perhaps I am being unjust, but it seems to me that there is so much emphasis on how much it costs and who pays, especially as the Assisted Dying Bill has been put back until the care costs have been announced.
It is as though they are saying ”Don’t despair if you cannot afford it, we will help you kill yourself.”
I am 85 now, disabled 1987, in receipt of DLA 1993. I own my own house. Forty years ago the value was unbelievable compared to now, but what people forget is that If I had to leave it I would pay more for another property. In 2018 I put my detached house on the market. It had a mortgage, under £1000K.(to build a disabled living extension, yet if it sold, I would not be able to buy larger than a two bed bungalow, which then would have had to be adapted.
I took out equity two years ago to cover the mortgage and repairs. I think there might just be enough to leave my daughter whom countless surgeries under the NHS has left disabled at 58, and on UC. If she can get a pension pot out of the sale of my house when I am no longer here, it will save a lot of money for the Government, and I cannot understand this hatred of wealth – even small wealth, that is making life so miserable for the elderly. It perpetuates dependency.