London Borough of Tower Hamlets (23 015 754)
Category : Children's care services > Looked after children
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 08 Mar 2024
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about a Council social worker’s conduct when she was involved with Mr X during his time in care. This is because the complaint concerns events that took place more than 12 months ago and there is no good reason to exercise discretion to investigate them now.
The complaint
- Ms Y complains on Mr X’s behalf about unprofessional conduct demonstrated by a social worker when Mr X was under the Council’s care.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
- 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 Ms Y and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Ms Y complains on Mr X’s behalf that when he was in care, the social worker assigned to his case made several inappropriate comments that affected his mental health. Mr X also complained that the social worker hindered his immigration process.
- The Council declined to escalate the complaint beyond stage 1 as the events took place between 2016 and 2018 and the social worker no longer works for the Council. Ms Y then brought the complaint to the Ombudsman.
- The Ombudsman will not usually exercise discretion to investigate complaints that took place more than 12 months before the complainant became aware of them. In this case the events complained about took place in 2016 and the social worker involved no longer works for the Council. The nature of the complaint is quite subjective and with the amount of time that has passed, it is unlikely an investigation would be able to determine exactly what happened here. Exercising discretion to investigate this complaint would therefore not be a good use of resources.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Ms Y’s complaint because the complaint concerns events that took place more than 12 months ago and there is no good reason to exercise discretion to investigate them now.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman