Derbyshire County Council (21 015 008)
Category : Children's care services > Adoption
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 24 Jan 2022
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint that the Council has failed to obtain a copy of a court transcript. This is because proceedings ended three years ago and I see no reason why the complaint couldn’t have been made sooner.
The complaint
- The complainant, who I will call Mrs X, complains that the Council has failed to provide her with a copy of a transcript from the courts relating to a hearing that took place in January 2019.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Ombudsman investigates 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 may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
- 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)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- I will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint that the Council failed to obtain a transcript from the courts. This is because the hearing was held in January 2019, but Mrs X did not complain about the matter until August 2020, some 20 months later.
- Even if this complaint was not made late, we would not investigate it. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault but the Council. It has contacted the courts and asked for the transcript and has subsequently chased the courts but as of yet the transcript has not been provided.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because it is made late and I see no reason why she could not have complained sooner.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman