City of York Council (21 005 105)
Category : Adult care services > Safeguarding
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 15 Sep 2021
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the alleged misconduct by Council staff dealing with an issue raised by the complainant. This is because it is unlikely a further investigation would add to the Council’s response.
The complaint
- The complainant, who I will call Mr A, is unhappy with the conduct of the Council’s employees. Mr A feels this has created a very difficult working situation for him and the Council ought to respond to his concerns appropriately.
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 or may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide:
- there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
- further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6) as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by Mr A and the Council. I also considered our Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mr A has said some of the Council’s employees have made incorrect allegations against him. Mr A believes there may be some conflict of interest driving these and they created a very difficult situation for him relating to his work.
- Mr A complained to the Council and it said it would be looking into the conduct of its employees as an internal staffing matter. It said the outcome of this would remain confidential as it relates to the individuals’ data.
- It is right for the Council to deal with this matter internally and a further investigation would be unlikely to result in a different outcome for the complainant.
Final decision
- I have decided we should not investigate this complaint. This is because the Council has already agreed to look into the conduct of its staff and deal with this internally. A further investigation would be unlikely to result in a different outcome.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman