Office of the Children's Commissioner

4. Miss S complains about the service provided by Officer of the Children’s Commissioner (the CCO) between January 2021 and July 2025. She specifically complains the CCO:

• failed to investigate and escalate safeguarding concerns she raised in 2021 • did not treat the disclosure as whistleblowing.

5. Miss S says the CCO’s institutional failures have caused long-term harm to her and her children. She said she has been left traumatised, isolated, financially destitute and without meaningful protection. She considers the OCC’s failure to act contributed to the abuse she and her family have experienced and has undermined her efforts to seek justice.

6. Miss S is seeking an apology, service improvements and financial remedy.

7. Miss S is a mother of four children. She states she is a whistleblower who has reported a number of serious safeguarding concerns in relation to her children within the community. A whistleblower is someone who exposes wrongdoing, misconduct or illegal activity inside an organisation.

8. Miss S has reported her concerns to all relevant organisations including the local authority, Social Work England, the police, her MP, the local government Ombudsman and to the CCO. She believes none of these organisations have acted appropriately, or in line with guidance and law to address her concerns.

9. In January 2021 Miss S raised her initial safeguarding concerns with the CC0.

10. In February 2021 the CCO informed Miss S it had shared her concerns with the local authority, which is its legal obligation in line with its safeguarding policy.

11. In December 2022, Miss S made a subject access request (SAR). A SAR is a legal right to ask an organisation for a copy of the personal data it holds about you. She received this information in January 2023.

12. In July 2025 Miss S made a formal stage one complaint to the CCO. In summary, she complained it had not acted on the safeguarding concerns she raised previously and had not treated her as a whistleblower. She also complained about its handling of her data.

13. Miss S said she made the complaint at this point because she had become aware of missing information in the SAR, after she had requested a Freedom of Information disclosure (FIO). An FIO is when an individual can ask a public authority for recorded information about public business.

14. Miss S said she found there were discrepancies in the information she received from the SAR and the FIO.

15. However, Miss S said this was not a single complaint she made. She told us she had been raising safeguarding concerns repeatedly over a prolonged period of time since before 2021. She said the CCO did not address her concerns, or it deflected them back to the local authority.

16. Miss S said the information in the SAR and the FOI confirmed the CCO had not acted appropriately or in line with guidance / policy with regards to the safeguarding concerns she had raised.

17. Miss S made a formal complaint in July 2025 because she considered the issues remained unaddressed.

18. The CCO provided first and second stage complaint responses in July 2025. It did not identify any failings on its part.

20. Section 6(3) of the Parliamentary Commissioners Act 1967 (the law) says a person needs to make their complaint to an MP within a year of becoming aware of the problem. We cannot investigate complaints brought to an MP after one year, unless we consider there is a good reason to do so.

21. Miss S’s complaint has not been referred by an MP. Miss S has brought her complaint to us under the Victim’s Code. The Victims Code sets out the minimum level of service victims should receive from organisations such as the police, courts, prison and probation. Complaints brought to us under the Victim’s Code do not require an MP referral.

22. With this in mind, we are considering when Miss S brought her complaint to us in place of when it was referred to an MP.

23. We first considered when Miss S became aware of her reason to complain, and whether her complaint was made to us in time.

24. Miss S raised her concerns with the CCO in January 2021. We understand Miss S has had safeguarding concerns which pre-date this complaint.

25. The CCO responded to Miss S the following month to advise her it had shared her concerns with the local authority.

26. The response informed the CCO’s safeguarding policy states it does not investigate safeguarding concerns. The only bodies that can do this are the police and local authority.

27. We understand at this point the local authority was already aware of the concerns raised and had carried out an investigation.

28. We think it is reasonable to consider this would be the first point, when Miss S may have considered she had cause to complain about the CCO. Miss S told us she made numerous complaints to the CCO from this time. This was because she felt it had not addressed her concerns.

29. Miss S made a SAR request in December 2022. 10 months after she raised her concerns and had received a response from the CCO.

30. Miss S then made her formal complaint to the CCO in July 2025. This is 18 months after she had received her SAR information and four and half years after she initially raised her concerns.

31. Miss S told us the SAR information was not the origin of her concerns. Rather, the information confirmed to her that the CCO had not acted as she believed it should, and it had not acted appropriately on her safeguarding concerns.

32. This tells us Miss S potentially date of knowledge with regards to her concerns about the CCO date back to 2021.

33. We do not think we can put aside the prolonged amount of time it took for Miss S to come to us. After raising her concerns with the CCO in January 2021, it appears she continued to be unhappy with its response and actions taken. It is likely her unhappiness with its response contributed to her decision to obtain a SAR.

34. This indicates Miss S considered she had a complaint against the CCO and was seeking information to support this concern.

35. It is unclear what information Miss S felt was missing from the SAR. However, we know the SAR information contained emails between the CCO and the local authority indicating the actions taken. If Miss S felt the CCO had not enacted within the law at this stage, this would have been a point she should have formally complained to the CCO, or brought her concerns to us.

36. We realise how unsupported and let down Miss S has felt by agencies. We can see from the documentation she has provided to us, she has spent significant time and effort engaging in various complaint processes and obtaining evidence to support her concerns.

37. Miss S explained she did not raise her complaint with us earlier because she was actively pursuing complaints through internal mechanisms, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), judicial review proceedings as well as formal regulatory routes. She said she was misled, stonewalled and redirected by the organisations she was complaining about. She said she now has the evidence to confirm the institutional failings she is complaining about.

38. Miss S has also shared with us the mental health challenges she has faced because of the issues her children have experienced and the lack of support and help they have received from agencies. She said she experienced extreme emotional distress and significant trauma making it difficult to navigate all the complaints channels at once. We also understand the time, practical and emotional energy she has needed to give to support and look after her children. We are so sorry to hear this.

39. We do not ask complainants to investigate their issues before coming to us. It is not part of our complaints process, or a requirement of the complainant to provide evidence of failings to us. We have a front-facing website which provide information about how to submit a complaint to us.

40. It is also important we remain focussed on Miss S’s complaint about the CCO. We realise Miss S’s complaints to the various organisations stem from the same safeguarding concerns she has raised. We are only looking at the role of the CCO in this and cannot consider her engagement during this time with other organisations.

41. We have carefully considered the timeframe for this complaint. We have to balance this with the legal framework for what we can investigate and whether it is reasonable for us to investigate something that occurred sometime ago.

42. We understand Miss S considers her children experiences are ongoing, and her concerns are current as opposed to historical issues.

43. We are not looking at her specific safeguarding concerns and the ongoing roles of organisations. We are considering the actions of the CCO which relate back to 2021. We do not think we can robustly justify the time taken for Miss S to bring her concerns to us. She has told us she had concerns about the CCO since this time.

44. We appreciate the time and effort Miss S put into making her complaint, particularly in light of the ongoing challenges she and her family face. We are sorry to disappoint her. We have decided we cannot legally investigate her complaint.

1. We have carefully considered Miss S’s complaint about the Office of the Children’s Commissioner (the CCO). We are sorry to hear about the experiences she and her family have been through. We understand Miss S has been trying to safeguard her children from harm and risk and has felt let down by many organisations. We do not underestimate how upsetting and worrying this has been for her.

2. We have decided we cannot look at Miss S’s complaint further. This is because it falls outside of our time limit. We understand Miss S has been involved in making a lot of complaints whilst continuing to experience real challenges which has impacted on her bringing her complaint to us sooner. We do not think we can put our time limit to one side.

3. It is important we act within the law. We understand Miss S will be disappointed with this decision. We do not intend for our decision to minimise her experiences or the impacts she has shared with us. We hope this statement clearly explains why we will not be considering her complaint further.