The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council has dealt with a complaint under the children’s statutory complaints procedure. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.
The complaint
The complainant, who I will call Ms X, complains about how the Council has dealt with her complaint about children’s services. She says the Council has delayed considering her complaint under the statutory children’s complaints procedure, because it has insisted on compiling a statement of complaint.
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 there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Ms X complained about the contents of a Child and Family Assessment. Ms X and the Council agreed that the complaint would be progressed to stage two of the statutory children’s complaints procedure, and it was therefore allocated to an Independent Officer (IO) to investigate.
The IO concluded that because there had not been a formal investigation at stage one and because the written submissions by Ms X were detailed a statement of complaint needed to be agreed. The IO offered to meet with Ms X but she declined. Therefore, the IO compiled a statement of complaint and asked Ms X to sign to say she agreed with it. Ms X refused to sign the statement of complaint and asked the Council to explain why it was necessary. The Council responded and gave Ms X a final opportunity to agree to the statement of complaint and said if she did not agree it would proceed with its investigation.
I will not investigate Ms X’s complaint. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council. The IO clearly did not feel they could proceed without gaining a clearer understanding of the complaint, and therefore decided to try to agree a statement of complaint with Ms X. Whilst this did mean that there has been a delay in providing Ms X with a response, I am satisfied that the Council has justified why it took this approach. The Council will now continue with their investigation. If Ms X is dissatisfied she may ask the Council to proceed to the final stage of the complaints process, she may then ask the Ombudsman to investigate if she remains dissatisfied.
Final decision
We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman