The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council dealt with child protection matters. This is because we cannot add to the investigation carried out by the Council or achieve the outcome the complainant seeks.
The complaint
Mr X complains about how the Council’s children’s services dealt with child protection matters. Mr X says the Council’s actions caused him anxiety, stress and emotional issues and affected his employment. Mr X would like to be compensated for a loss of earnings.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
We investigate 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 continue an investigation if we decide: we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B)) The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), 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
The Council considered Mr X’s complaint under the statutory complaints procedure for complaints about children’s services. At stage two of the process, the independent investigator largely upheld the complaint and made a number of recommendations including the Council apologise to Mr X and make a payment to remedy the distress caused by the failings identified.
The Council offered to make a payment to Mr X of £750 to remedy the distress it caused him. The complaint was progressed to stage three of the complaints process because Mr X was dissatisfied with the payment offered and wanted the Council to reimburse him over £200,000 in lost earnings.
I will not investigate Mr X’s complaint. The payment offered to Mr X for the distress caused by the failings identified by the independent investigator is in line with our guidance on remedies and we could therefore not add to the investigation carried out by the Council in regard to this point.
I will not investigate Mr X’s complaint that the Council should reimburse him for lost earnings because we cannot achieve the outcome he seeks. If Mr X wishes to make a claim against the Council for loss of earnings, the courts are better placed to determine whether he is entitled to compensation and how much to award.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because we cannot add to the investigation carried out by the Council or achieve the outcome he seeks.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman