Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s alleged failure to keep Mr Q up to date about his partner. We are unlikely to find fault with the Council. And the injustice Mr Q has suffered because of the alleged fault is not sufficient to justify an investigation.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I have called Mr Q, complained that Worcestershire County Council failed to keep him up to date regarding his partner, as required by a court order.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe:

• it is unlikely we would find fault, or
• the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered the information Mr Q provided. I invited Mr Q to comment on a draft of this decision.

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What I found

What happened

4. Mr Q’s partner, Ms F, lives in supported housing. There is a court order which requires the Council to keep Mr Q up to date regarding Ms F.
5. Ms F moved to different supported housing. Mr Q said the Council failed to tell him about the move. He only found out about it when he phoned Ms F’s old home to arrange a visit, and discovered she had moved. The Council said it had written to Mr Q and telephoned him about the move. Mr Q said he did not receive the Council’s letters.

Assessment

6. We will not investigate this complaint.
7. The Council says it wrote to Mr Q and spoke to him about Ms F’s move. Mr Q said he did not get the Council’s letters. However, there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council to start an investigation.
8. However, even if the Council was at fault in the way Mr Q alleges, the injustice he suffered is not significant enough to justify an investigation. I say this because although Mr Q may not have known about Ms F’s move when it happened, this did not prevent him from visiting her when he wanted.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate this complaint for the reasons given in the Assessment.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman