The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council not referring his case to the National Referral Mechanism. It is unlikely we would find this caused him any significant injustice.
The complaint
Mr X says the Council should have referred him to the National Referral Mechanism when he was a looked after child.
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: there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating; or any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained; or any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Mr X which included the Council’s response to him.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Mr X is now 23, but as a teenager was a looked after child. Mr X says that whilst he was a looked after child and/ or leaving care young person the Council, as a first responder, should have spotted the signs and referred him to the National Referral Mechanism. The Council says its investigation concluded it had the power to refer and could have done so. But it did not say it should have.
Analysis Mr X as a looked after child received support assessed as he needed. A referral in his circumstances should have brought no more support. He has not therefore lost out by the lack of a referral so we are unlikely to say he has been caused any significant injustice.
The Ombudsman is not an appeal body. This means we do not take a second look at a decision to decide if it was wrong.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it is unlikely we would find that he has been caused any significant injustice by a failure to refer his case to the National Referral Mechanism.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman