Summary: We will not investigate this late complaint about the Council’s safeguarding investigation. There is not a good reason Mr X did not complain to us sooner.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council did not tell him and his mother’s (Mrs Z’s) care home when it completed a safeguarding investigation. This meant restrictions on his visits continued unnecessarily. The Council prevented Mrs Z taking part in religious activities. Items belonging to Mrs Z went missing. The Council did not properly investigate the issues. Mr X says the issues caused intense stress and worry. He wants care fees to be refunded and procedural change. He also wants staff responsible to be dismissed.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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 has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

Back to top

My assessment

5. The Council carried out a safeguarding investigation relating to Mr X’s mother, Mrs Z, which it finished in March 2019. It did not tell Mr X it had closed the safeguarding case, and Mrs Z’s freedoms continued to be restricted until her death in 2020. Mr X says the Council told him in January 2020 it had closed the safeguarding investigation ten months previously.
6. We cannot investigate complaints that are brought to us more than 12 months after the person knew they had reason to complain. The Council took eight months from March 2021 to November 2021 to compile its final complaint response (although Mr X says he received it a further month after that). I have considered the Council’s role in the time it took Mr X to complain to us.
7. However, Mr X first complained to the Council in November 2020, which was already ten months after he knew about the issue. Mr X brought his complaint to the Ombudsman two years after he found out about the issue, and there is not a good reason he did not complain sooner.

Back to top

Final decision

8. We will not investigate Mr X’s late complaint because there is not a good reason he did not complain sooner.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman