Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint. It lies outside our jurisdiction because it is late and I see no good grounds to exercise discretion to consider it now.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Miss X, complains about the Council’s withdrawal of support for her daughter in mid-2022 and the Council’s decision not to consider her complaint about it.

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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 do not start an investigation if we decide the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
4. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

7. Miss X complained to the Council about its decision to end support for her daughter in mid-2022.
8. The Council told Miss X it would not consider her complaint because it relates to matters that happened over 12 months ago. It forwarded Miss X’s concerns to its triage team to consider and contact Miss X about any support it may be able to provide now.
9. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint. It lies outside our jurisdiction because it is late as it is about matters Miss X has been aware of for over 12 months. The law says a complaint should be made to us within 12 months of the person affected first becoming aware of the matter. Miss X was clearly aware of the matter in 2022 and I see no good grounds to exercise discretion to consider it now over 18 months later.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because it lies outside our jurisdiction and there are no good grounds to exercise discretion to consider it now.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman