The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Mr B’s complaint that the Council has placed his daughter in the wrong ability group for swimming lessons. This is because the claimed injustice is not significant enough to justify an investigation.
The complaint
The complainant, who I will refer to as Mr B, complains that his daughter was placed in the wrong ability class by the Council’s swimming department. Mr B says the Council ignored information he provided and did not arrange for an independent review of the assessment. Mr B says his daughter is in a group below her ability level, which has caused her embarrassment and put her off swimming.
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 an investigation if we decide any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Mr B.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
We have limited resources and must focus our investigations on complaints of serious injustice. The issue Mr B complains about has not caused his daughter a significant injustice which would justify public money being spent on an investigation by the Ombudsman. So, we will not investigate this complaint.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr B’s complaint because the claimed injustice is not significant enough to justify an investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman