Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about officers’ actions in relation to adoption processes. There are no good reasons the late complaint rule should not apply.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Mr X, complains about the way an adoption agency on behalf of the Council has acted towards him.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council/care provider has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
3. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint unless we are satisfied the Council knows about the complaint and has had an opportunity to investigate and reply. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to notify the Council of the complaint and give it an opportunity to investigate and reply (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(5)).

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
6. I considered comments made on Mr X’s behalf on a draft version of this decision.

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My assessment

7. Mr X says he, and his partner, applied to be adopters. The Council uses an agency to carry out its duties on its behalf. Mr X says officers were rude to them and acted in a racist prejudicial manner towards them. They believe they lost out on adoption opportunities. They say the officers’ actions added to what is always a stressful process.
8. The Council replied to a complaint about these matters in 2019. It says Mr X did not request the Council escalate his complaint nor did he contact the Council about the same issues until 2021. It says it is happy to reply to any incidents or events in the last 12 months.
9. We will not investigate a complaint known to Mr X for more than 12 months without good reasons. Mr X says he should not have had to read small print on letters, they have been struggling with the adoption process since and have been grieving. These reasons are not good enough to justify a two year gap in continuing this complaint.
10. It is reasonable to expect Mr X to use the Council’s complaint procedure first before we can consider any complaint about events in the last 12 months.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because there are no good reasons the late complaint rule should not apply and it is reasonable to expect Mr X to use the Council’s complaint procedure for the newer events.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman