London Borough of Waltham Forest (21 009 481)
Category : Adult care services > Other
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 10 Oct 2021
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of matters relating to letters sent by Mr X to his son. This is because we are unlikely to find evidence of fault by the Council.
The complaint
- The complainant, who I refer to as Mr X, says the Council has failed to deal correctly with letters he has written to his son in accordance with a court order. He says he got no response to the letters.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
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 an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mr X has made previous complaints to the Ombudsman about matters concerning his son, who does not live with him, and his son’s capacity to make decisions. We will not revisit these previously addressed complaints.
- Following a court application Mr X made in connection with contact with his son, Mr X’s solicitors wrote to the Council with queries which the court order required the Council to respond to within 14 days. The Council did this.
- Mr X then wrote two letters to his son which the Council acknowledged receipt of and delivered to his son. It was then left to Mr X’s son to decide if he wanted to respond. While Mr X did not receive a response from his son, this is not evidence of fault by the Council and there are no grounds on which to base an investigation of this matter.
- It is open to Mr X to instruct solicitors again if he wants to pursue legal action in relation to his son’s capacity.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because we are unlikely to find evidence of fault by the Council.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman