Summary: We will not investigate Mr and Mrs X’s complaint about the Council refusing to investigate their children services complaint. We are unlikely to find fault.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Mr and Mrs X, say the Council should not have refused to investigate their complaint about children services’ actions.

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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 has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
3. We investigate 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 continue an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by Mr and Mrs X which included the Council’s reply to their complaint.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Mr and Mrs X complained to the Council at the end of November 2023. They disagreed with the Council’s decision to have a child protection plan, the social workers’ approach and issues with child protection conferences. The child protection plan had ended 364 days before their complaint.
7. The Council refused to investigate the complaint within its Children Act statutory complaints’ procedure. It said the events Mr and Mrs X complained of were more than 12 months old.

Analysis

8. The child protection events which Mr and Mrs X complain of, all happened more than 12 months before they complained. The child protection plan ending happened just under 12 months before they complained, but this is not their complaint. Their complaint is about events in the months before the plan ended.
9. The Children Act statutory complaints’ procedure does not have to be used for child protection complaints.
10. We are unlikely to find fault in the Council’s decision not to use the Children Act statutory complaints’ procedure.
11. We should not investigate Mr and Mrs X’s complaint, about the child protection action, because it is reasonable to expect them to have complained to us within 12 months of those events.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Mr and Mrs X’s complaint because there are no good reasons why the late complaint rule should not apply and we are unlikely to find faut in the Council’s decision not to investigate their complaint.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman