Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Mr A’s complaint about the Council’s decision to refer its concerns to the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG). This is because the injustice Mr A claims from the actions of the Council, is not significant enough to warrant an investigation by the Ombudsman.

The complaint

1. Mr A says the Council should not have referred the outcome of a Safeguarding Enquiry to the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG). Mr A says the actions taken by the Council who have not investigated his concerns are unprofessional and aggressive. Mr A says the Council should fully investigate matters before asking the OPG to consider removing him as Attorney for his mother’s, Mrs B’s, health and welfare.

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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 fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• it is unlikely we could add to any previous investigation by the Council, or
• it is unlikely further investigation will lead to a different outcome, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.

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

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered the information Mr A provided. I sent Mr A a copy of my draft decision and considered his comments on it.

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What I found

4. Mr A complains about the way he was treated by the Council and the decisions it took following a safeguarding meeting regarding his mother Mrs B when she was in hospital in its area.
5. Mr A says the Council has wrongly assessed his mother as lacking capacity and should not have referred concerns it had following a Safeguarding Enquiry to the OPG without first discussing it with her family.
6. The Ombudsman cannot tell the Council not to refer its concerns to the OPG. There is no separate injustice to Mr A from the actions of the Council regarding the unprofessional and aggressive behaviour he claims which might warrant the Ombudsman to investigate. Mr A can ask the OPG to consider the reasons why it should dismiss the Council’s referral and provide the evidence he has to support this.

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Final decision

7. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because the injustice Mr A claims from the actions of the Council, is not significant enough to warrant an investigation by the Ombudsman.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman