Summary: Mr X complains about the Council’s actions over the years which negatively impacted on him and his mother. We will not investigate the complaint because the events complained about happened too long ago.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I refer to as Mr X, complains about the Council’s negative response to his complaint concerning Social Services’ abusive treatment of him and his deceased mother over the years which he says contributed to her death and about a data protection breach.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. 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)
4. We normally expect someone to refer the matter to the Information Commissioner if they have a complaint about data protection. However, we may decide to investigate if we think there are good reasons. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

5. In considering the complaint I reviewed the information provided by Mr X’s representative and gave them the opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered the comments made in response to my draft decision.

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What I found

6. In 2019 Mr X submitted a complaint to the Council about its treatment of him and his mother, now deceased. He alleged the Council had contributed to her death because it had refused to help her and that they had both been abused by the Council over the years. He also complained about the behaviour of a named officer who he said had revealed confidential information about him to other parties.
7. The Council responded to Mr X’s complaint to advise that it would not investigate it because he had previously made similar, persistent complaints about discrimination, abuse and racism which had been unfounded. It told Mr X what action he could take if he wanted to access adult social care support services and that he could contact us if he was dissatisfied with its response.
8. Two years later, Mr X complained to us about these matters.

Assessment

9. The restriction highlighted at paragraph 3 applies to Mr X’s complaint. In 2019 he complained to the Council about events which had taken place a number of years before. It is too late for us to investigate these matters now and so the complaint falls outside our jurisdiction and I see no grounds which warrant exercising discretion to do so now.
10. In responding to my draft decision Mr X says it took him a long time to escalate his complaint to us because following his mother’s death he suffered from mental health problems, he was in dispute with relatives over his mother’s estate and he lost his job. However, issues about which Mr X complains concerning the treatment of him and his mother happened in the years preceding his mother’s death. Moreover, he was able to make a formal complaint to the Council and received details of how to contact us in 2019 so while I have noted Mr X’s comments, he could have complained to us sooner.
11. Mr X’s concerns about a data protection breach are best addressed by the Information Commissioner.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because the events complained about happened too long ago to be investigated now.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman