London Borough of Croydon (21 010 776)
Category : Adult care services > Safeguarding
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 09 Dec 2021
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the way the Council carried out a safeguarding investigation. This is because any fault by the Council has not caused Mr X or his neighbour an injustice.
The complaint
- Mr X complains the Council caused him and a neighbour significant distress as a result of a safeguarding investigation. Mr X says the Council caused damage to his reputation.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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 fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mr X and his neighbour were subject to a safeguarding investigation after they made the Council aware that Mr X’s daughter had been given a vehicle and cash by his neighbour.
- Mr X disputes the Council’s records of what was said during his contact with social workers and is unhappy that information about the investigation was shared with a solicitor. Mr X says he does understand why the Council would want to investigate the matter.
- Being the subject of a safeguarding investigation will inevitably cause stress for those involved. However, I cannot see that the stress caused to Mr X and his neighbour was above that which might be expected in normal circumstances of a safeguarding investigation. Therefore, even if we found fault it is unlikely we would say the Council’s actions caused Mr X and his neighbour an injustice, therefore we will not investigate this complaint.
- The safeguarding investigation found no issues with Mr X’s conduct towards his neighbour.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because he and his neighbour have not been caused an injustice as a result of any fault by the Council.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman