Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council responded to his complaint. We do not have consent to investigate parts of his complaint and other parts of the complaint are late. We will not investigate the way a Council responded to a complaint where we are not investigating the substantive issues and there are no public interest reasons to investigate.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains that the Council has failed to properly respond to his complaint about issues at a care home where his niece was a resident. Mr X complains he has been put to unnecessary time and trouble pursuing his complaint.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Ombudsman investigates 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 or may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
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 or care provider has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
4. We may investigate complaints made on behalf of someone else if they have given their consent. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26A(1), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by the complainant and his representative.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. The main issue raised by Mr X is that a care home where his niece was resident made unfounded allegations about him. These allegations date back to 2018 and Mr X was aware of them at the time. Mr X did not complain to the Council until March 2020. Therefore, this is a late complaint even taking account of any delays in the Council responding to the complaint. We have discretion to set aside this restriction where we decide there are good reasons. In this case I have decided not to exercise discretion because it is reasonable to expect Mr X to have complained to us about the allegations sooner.
8. The other issues Mr X has raised relate to the care home’s treatment of his niece. We have no evidence to show that Mr X has consent or legal authority to act on behalf of his niece and so we cannot consider these complaints.
9. We will not usually investigate how a council has responded to a complaint where we cannot investigate the substantive issues complained of. This is because the complaint handling is inextricably linked to the substantive issues raised. Furthermore, were we to remove the substantive issues from our consideration of a complaint the remaining issue of any fault in the Council’s handling of the complaint would usually be marginal and we would be unable to justify our involvement.
10. Mr X says he is concerned that the Council may treat other complainants in the same way and believes there is significant public interest reasons for investigating this complaint. The issues raised by Mr X are individual to his complaint. This includes the tone of the Council’s response, officers dealing with the complaint being related and delays. I cannot, therefore, see there are systemic issues which the Ombudsman would need to address and so we will not investigate this complaint.
11. In Mr X’s case he says he was compelled to instruct solicitors to assist him with his complaint and has incurred legal fees as a result. The Ombudsman provides a free service and it is not usually necessary to instruct solicitors to bring a complaint. Whilst I understand Mr X was upset with the allegations made against him I can see no reason why it would be necessary to instruct a solicitor to assist with this complaint.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because we do not have his niece’s consent to investigate parts of his complaint and other parts of his complaint are late. We will not investigate the way a Council responded to a complaint where we are not investigating the substantive issues and there are no public interest reasons to investigate.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman