South Gloucestershire Council (20 013 070)
Category : Adult care services > Other
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 16 Apr 2021
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about a request to identify someone who made an allegation. We cannot achieve the outcome Mrs C wants.
The complaint
- Mrs C says the Council has not revealed the name of someone who made an allegation about safeguarding against her.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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 we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I read the complaint and the Council’s responses. I invited Mrs C to comment on the draft decision.
What I found
- Mrs C says several false allegations have been made to the Council’s safeguarding team about her relationship with her adult daughter. She says her daughter lives in a flat and is assisted by a care company. Mrs C says she thinks it is a member of staff from the care company and wants the Council to reveal the identity of who is making the allegations against her. She says each of the allegations against her have been dismissed.
- The complaint made by Mrs C to the Council was about a named member of staff making comments about her and passing them to the safeguarding team.
- The Council said Mrs C should make a complaint to the member of staff’s employer if she wished to.
- The Council has a responsibility to act on information it receives but cannot disclose where the allegations have come from. Neither the Council, nor the Ombudsman, can tell Mrs C who made the allegations.
Final decision
- We will not investigate this complaint. This is because neither the Council, nor the Ombudsman, can reveal to Mrs C the identity of someone who made an allegation. Therefore, we cannot achieve the outcome Mrs C wants.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman