The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint the Council has been biased against him in how it has dealt with a child protection matter. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault to justify an investigation.
The complaint
Mr X complains the Council has a vendetta against him, and has been biased, corrupt, sexist and discriminatory in the way it has dealt with his child protection matter.
Mr X says the Council has destroyed his social, family and work life.
Mr X would like the Council to remove particular individuals and stop allowing parental alienation.
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 there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
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 is involved with Mr X’s family under child protection matters.
Mr X complained to the Council with a list of examples of how he felt it had dealt with the matter unfairly.
The Council has provided a detailed response explaining why it has done what it has done. It has apologised for the way Mr X feels and has agreed to change some of the ways it interacts with him to ensure he feels able to be heard.
It has met with him to talk through the issues and ensured his views are considered in a further assessment.
It has not agreed to change the social worker allocated to the matter, and in the absence of a substantive reason to do this, this is a decision the Council is entitled to make.
In reviewing the information provided, I have not seen evidence the Council has been biased or discriminated against Mr X.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault to justify an investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman