The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the involvement of the Council’s Early Help Team with the complainant and her family. This is because we could not add to the investigation already carried out by the Council. Also, some matters happened too long ago, and some are better dealt with by the Information Commissioner.
The complaint
The complainant, who I will call Mrs X, complains about the actions of the Council’s Early Help Team after its involvement with Mrs X and her family. She says the team failed to properly support the family in 2020, produced a bias and inaccurate assessment in 2021 and breached her data protection. Mrs X says the Council’s actions have caused her significant distress.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
The Ombudsman investigates complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6)) We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended) We normally expect someone to refer the matter to the Information Commissioner if they have a complaint about data protection. However, we may decide to investigate if we think there are good reasons. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
I will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the service she received from the Early Help Team in 2020. This is because these events happened too long ago, and I see no reason why she could not have raised her concerns with the Council and then the Ombudsman at the time.
The Council’s Early Help Team became involved with the family again in 2021 after a referral received from the police. Mrs X says an assessment the team produced was not initially shared with her. Mrs X says assessment included inaccurate information from a police officer who was bias towards her. She also highlighted other inaccurate information within the assessment, says other important information was missed and disagrees with the recorded views of social workers.
I will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the assessment completed in 2021. The Council has apologised for not initially sharing the assessment with Mrs X and has agreed to add a note to the assessment file detailing Mrs X’s views on the contents. Having considered the Council’s actions, I consider them to be proportionate and appropriate. Therefore, I do not consider that we could add further to the investigation carried out by the Council.
Furthermore, if Mrs X feel the Council is holding inaccurate information within the assessment, she has the right of rectification under the law. If the Council decide not to amend the record, it is reasonable to expect her to raise this with the Information Commissioner who is better placed to deal with such matters.
The Information Commissioner is also better placed to deal with Mrs X’s complaints that the Council has breached her data protection in how it held and shared information. For this reason, I will not investigate these elements of her complaint.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman