Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about legal costs she incurred in 2017 due to the Council’s childrens services involvement with her extended family. The complaint lies outside our jurisdiction because it is late and there are not good grounds to consider this very late complaint now.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Mrs X, complains about legal costs she incurred in 2017 due to childrens services involvement with her family. Mrs X says this arose due to incorrect information held by the Council.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse effect on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start an investigation if the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
3. 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 has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by the complainant.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

Back to top

My assessment

6. Mrs X complains she incurred legal costs of almost £13,000 in 2017 due to the Council’s child protection involvement with her family. Mrs X says this happened only due to incorrect information being held by the Council.
7. We cannot consider a complaint about the information the Council held. This is because we have previously considered and decided a complaint about this matter from Mrs X, in 2021.
8. The Council has declined to consider Mrs X’s complaint about the legal costs because it is late. The same restriction also applies to Mrs X’s complaint to this office.
9. The law says a complaint should be made to us within 12 months of a person first becoming aware of the matter. I see no good reason to exercise discretion to consider Mrs X’s complaint about legal costs now. It is reasonable to expect Mrs X to have complained about this issue to the Council and to this office much sooner.

Back to top

Final decision

10. We cannot investigate a complaint about incorrect information held by the Council. This is because we previously considered and decided a complaint about this from Mrs X in 2021. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about legal costs she incurred in 2017. This lies outside our jurisdiction because it is late and there are not good grounds to exercise discretion to consider it now.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman