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The daughter of an elderly woman who was fed dog food that had been heated up in her microwave just days before her death said she was 'unable to grieve' as she was battling for justice.

Joyce, 96, who the Daily Mail has agreed to only identify by first name, began receiving care from Radis in August 2022 after a fall. By June 2024, she had entered end-of-life care.

As part of her care plan, Joyce was unable to eat any solid food and was only allowed yoghurts and liquids, due to a risk of choking.

However, just three weeks before her death, a care worker took the dog food out of the freezer, before heating it up in the microwave and spoon feeding it to the pensioner.

The meal was fed to Joyce despite the fact it was kept in packaging labelled 'for adult dogs and puppies'. The care worker logged it as a 'lamb dinner'.

Portsmouth City Council, which had commissioned Radis to provide care services for people in the area, has apologised and dropped the care firm's services.

Joyce's daughter Justine Morrison said she initially thought it was a joke when she picked up a phone call and was told that her mother had been fed dog food.

Hairdresser Mrs Morrison told the Mail: 'I was driving home at the time and I had to pull over.

Justine Morrison pictured with her mother Joyce, who the Daily Mail has agreed to only identify by first name, before her death

The dog food which frozen and microwaved before being fed to Joyce by the care worker

'They said "I am really sorry, but a carer fed your mother dog food". I thought they were joking at first.'

The pet food had been put in the freezer as Mrs Morrison regularly visited her mother.

'I used to go round five times a day,' she said, 'I had food for my dog there because I was there so often.

'If the carer had read her care plan, she would have seen it said "no food" so there should have never been any risk of her eating it.

'She shouldn't have been allowed to have any food, let alone dog food.

'The girl put that in the microwave and warmed it up from frozen.

'I dread to think of my mum's face, it must have looked and smelled disgusting.'

Furious at the treatment of their mother, Mrs Morrison and her brother complained to Radis.

Their concerns were reportedly laughed off by the manager during a staff meeting.

She added: 'The manager of the company was shocking. She laughed and said she didn't know what the big deal was. She said that all dog food is tested on humans so it was safe to eat.

'We only found out all of this thirteen days before my mum passed. They had known about it two weeks before.'

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman investigation was told that following a mini-stroke, an agreement had been made to only give Joyce soft food.

Around this time, Joyce was fed the dog food, which was also labelled as a 'fresh take on dog food'. The vacuum-packed food had been microwaved, and she had been given three mouthfuls.

Joyce pictured with her husband, who died two years before her

Joyce and her husband pictured in their younger days

Another care worker who had been present noticed the packaging in the kitchen – but it took her a week to get hold of a senior colleague in order to raise the alarm. The food was then removed from Joyce's kitchen.

A new supplier was not found before she died in July 2024, a coroner ruling she died of 'frailty of old age'.

Radis, while accepting its workers had failed to look after Joyce, refused to agree to remedies demanded by Mrs Morrison.

The siblings had already been making efforts to remove Radis from the picture when their mother's health began to deteriorate.

As she grew suspicious of the lack of care, Mrs Morrison installed a camera in her mother's home.

She said: 'When my mum could still eat I went round and bought her a lobster and left it in the fridge.

'Lobster was her favourite so I wrote "lobster in fridge for mum's tea" on the whiteboard as a message for the carers.

'I was in the salon working and I was watching the camera between 4pm and 7pm as they were due to come in at 4pm to feed her. I did not see one person come in. The sandwich from lunchtime was still sat on the table uncovered.

'I went round, fed mum the lobster and sat and waited for the carers to come in

'I had a go at them and when I got in the car I heard them say to my mum "tell your daughter that we have been coming in and you are declining food".

On another occasion, the camera caught a care worker appearing to force-feed the elderly woman.

Mrs Morrison also said she had to show two separate carers how to position her mother in her hospital bed.

In a litany of errors, she also found medication on the floor and in her bed and at times care staff would not show up to feed her.

She said despite the report, she still has not received an apology from Radis directly.

She said: 'My mum paid for all her care herself.

'I haven't been able to grieve yet. I was distraught at what had happened.

'It has been an absolute battle.

'My mother had us later in life, we lost my dad two years before.

'She was a really good mum and gave us such a good upbringing. She worked hard to save for her future.

'She was a hairdresser like me.

'What is hard is I find it really hard to remember my mum before this all happened.'

Joyce pictured when she was 16. Mrs Morrison said she found it hard to remember her mother before her illness

The Ombudsman went on to recommend that Radis refund Joyce's care fees to her family - a rare intervention but justified because 'the service provided was so poor that the provider effectively failed to deliver the service paid for,' it said.

'We find the care was so poor that Joyce’s estate should receive a full refund of any client contributions she paid to the Council between April and July 2024,' it said.

It has told Portsmouth City Council to apologise to Joyce's family, to refund care fees, and to pay an additional £1,000 in recognition of the distress caused by both the failings in care and subsequent delays into a safeguarding investigation.

The council says it has met those requests.

Mrs Morrison said she has not yet accepted any money as a result of the report.

Mrs Morrison is now working towards launching a charity in her mother's name. She is looking to call it Joyce's Voice.

She said: 'I have got to try and make something good out of this horrendous experience.

'What we have been through as a family has shown us that there is very little help out there and I want to try and provide support to anyone else going through this.

'I was on my own and I now know the system inside-out.

'However, the way care workers were trained so poorly was a massive failure of the system.

'The whole care system needs a massive shake-up.'

Councillor Matthew Winnington, the authority's cabinet member for community wellbeing, health and care, said: 'We accept the Ombudsman's findings in full and recognise the seriousness of what happened in this case.

'We ended our contract with Radis early and we no longer work with, or commission services from them.'

Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman Amerdeep Clarke said: 'This is a truly shocking case.

'A vulnerable woman's care deteriorated over many months while a statutory inquiry drifted without proper oversight.'

Radis claimed in a statement to the BBC that it 'voluntarily withdrew' from its contract in Portsmouth.

It said: 'The fact that dog food was mistakenly provided was wholly unacceptable'

A Council spokesman said:'"We are saddened by this unacceptable incident and recognise the distress it has caused.

Radis is a national provider of extra care services and were the registered provider for many schemes with good CQC ratings when appointed by the council, however, following concerns, a decline in service quality, and inadequate CQC ratings, we are ending their contract.

'Our priority is residents' safety and wellbeing. We are working with new providers to ensure a smooth transition and we will continue to monitor standards rigorously.'