Summary: We decided we cannot continue to investigate Miss X’s complaint. This is because alongside our investigation, the Council has also begun investigating the matter.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains the Council:

• declined to carry out adaptations needed at her property to keep her son safe, and instead it unreasonably decided she should be prioritised for a move to an alternative property, which is not her preference.
• did not carry out interim adaptations to keep her son safe while she remained at her current property.
• declined to provide equipment (a safe space bed) that her son needed.
• has not dealt with her complaint properly as it has not agreed to consider the complaint as a Statutory Stage Two complaint.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint unless we are satisfied the organisation knows about the complaint and has had an opportunity to investigate and reply.
3. It is our decision whether to start, and when to end an investigation into something the law allows us to investigate. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 24A(6) and 34B(8), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered evidence provided by Miss X and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
5. Miss X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments before making a final decision.

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What I found

Background

6. Miss X’s son, Y, has disabilities and additional needs. Y has reduced safety awareness and always requires close supervision.
7. Miss X moved to her current council property in 2023. At that time the Council carried out an Occupational Therapist (OT) assessment of Y’s needs. It determined that major adaptations were needed to the property to meet Y’s safety and supervision needs. The Council considered a complaint about various points via the children’s statutory complaints procedure. We considered its findings in an earlier complaint investigation. One of the investigation findings was that there had been a failure to complete the identified adaptations to Miss X’s property in a timely manner. At the time our previous investigation ended the Council compensated Miss X for the distress. We recommended the Council provided interim support while the adaptations were completed.
8. Our previous investigation considered events from 2023 to October 2024.

Miss X’s 2025 complaint

9. Miss X made a new complaint in early June 2025. She complained that for three years her son had been put to significant risk because of the failure to complete the adaptations needed to keep her son safe.
10. As well as referring to the historic issues, she referred to more recent events, including a fresh assessment of needs carried out in January 2025 and the council now proposing a move of property. The adaptations still had not been done and Miss X stated the decision making by the Council seemed to be about budgets and not her child’s safety.
11. On 30 June the Council told Miss X it would not be considering her complaint because it related to issues it had already considered previously. It stated it considered the issues now being raised about the January 2025 assessment amounted to a complaint about the Children’s Occupational Therapy Service (part of the NHS). For this reason it did not agree to investigate the complaint. It referred Miss X to us if she remained unhappy.
12. Miss X brought a complaint to the Ombudsman.

Our View

13. We began investigating Miss X’s complaint. We noted the Council had an opportunity to respond to her complaint, but it had chosen not to do so, instead referring Miss X to us. We made enquiries to the Council. However, in the course of our enquiries it became clear that since its June 2025 correspondence, the Council had changed its position and launched its own investigation under the Children’s Statutory Complaints Procedure. This was ongoing.
14. It is not appropriate for two separate detailed investigations to be taking place at the same time. As the Council is now investigating the same issues that have been brought to the Ombudsman, and this is being done through a statutory process, we will discontinue our investigation until the independent investigation has been completed.
15. If the Statutory investigation does not resolve the matter, Miss X can bring the complaint back to us. We will then reopen the investigation and consider the complaint, taking account of the statutory investigation findings.

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Decision

16. As the Council has now begun a statutory complaint investigation on the same matter brought to the Ombudsman, we discontinued our investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman