Tim Thompson was horrified at the state of the care home where his 96-year-old grandmother lived.

{mosimage}It was not just the soiled carpets that worried him but his grandmother’s rapid deterioration in the Edendale Care Home, Wisbech, Cambs.

He was so desperate he even contemplated “rescuing” her from the home, only to be warned he did not have power of attorney over the dementia patient and would be reported to the police if he removed her.

Mr Thompson hoped reporting the home to the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) would see an independent investigation improve the care his grandmother and others would receive.

He expected unannounced spot checks – but, to his shock, his three-page letter was sent to the home’s temporary manager, who effectively investigated herself and said action had been taken.

“It was unbelievable,” Mr Thompson, told a BBC Radio 4’s File On 4 programme investigation.

The CSCI decided not to investigate.

Mike Rourke, its business director for inspection, regulation and review, told BBC Radio 4’s File On 4 programme: “We don’t believe we have the authority to investigate individual complaints.

More than half of all working mothers will lie about why they are running late or absent from the office if their childcare arrangements fall through, according to research.

More than half of all working mothers will lie about why they are running late or absent from the office if their childcare arrangements fall through, according to research.

Fifteen government departments and agencies, including Whitehall’s biggest spenders, face the threat of legal action for failing to carry out their duties under race equality legislation, according to a final report from the Commission for Racial Equality to be published later this week.

A former nursing home matron today admitted failing to ensure adequate care to residents as a disciplinary hearing heard how elderly women were left with undressed sores and sitting in urine.

{mosimage}Patricia Parker, 59, admitted a series of failings dating from when she was the matron and manager of the Laurel Bank home in Halifax, West Yorkshire.

The home was featured in a BBC Panorama documentary earlier this year in which a former worker spoke of what she described as abuse and mental torture of patients behind closed doors. The woman told the programme that residents were slapped with towels, called names and left screaming in discomfort at the home.

Registered nurse Mrs Parker, from Halifax, admitted failings in relation to three former residents at a meeting of the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s Professional Conduct Committee in Bradford.

Her deputy at the home, Elisabeth Uttley, 62, from Sowerby Bridge, West Yorkshire, is facing similar charges but has chosen not to attend the hearing. Both women are registered nurses.

{mosimage}The allegations against the two women focus on the treatment of three pensioners who lived at the home between 2002 and 2004 – Agnes Moore, 68, Lily Leatham, 83, and Ivy McGuire, who was 78 when she died three years ago.

In November 2005 the nursing home agreed to pay an undisclosed figure to Mrs Leatham in an out-of-court settlement after she was left with pressure sores so acute her hip bone could be clearly seen.

The government is promising a fresh look at the need for an independent complaints process for vulnerable elderly people in care.