Mr X complained about the actions taken by Flintshire County Council from November 2021 when his daughter, Y, went to live with her grandmother and then to a regulated care home. Mr X was unhappy with the independent Stage 2 investigation of his complaint. Mr X was also unhappy as he considered his fourth complaint had not been addressed by the Council.
The Ombudsman was unable to consider the complaints that related to Y, as she had not provided her authorisation for the Ombudsman to do so, which would have involved the accessing of her personal records. Therefore, the assessment of Mr X’s complaint focused on his complaints relating solely to him.
To resolve Mr X’s complaint, the Council agreed to, within 20 working days, issue a further response to Mr X to include an apology for not actioning his request for a meeting to be face to face due to his hearing impairment and for any confusion about the handling of his fourth complaint letter, together with a further explanation about how this had been dealt with.
The Ombudsman considered this action was reasonable to resolve Mr X’s complaint.