London Borough of Camden (21 016 393)
Category : Adult care services > Safeguarding
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 15 Mar 2022
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council has dealt with concerns about Mr X and his family. This is because there is no evidence of fault by the Council.
The complaint
- Mr X complains the Council held meetings about his sister’s wellbeing without inviting him. Mr X says that the Council has made unfounded allegations about the condition of his property and his attitude towards professionals of certain backgrounds.
- Mr X says the Council’s actions have caused his family distress.
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 there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- The Council is entitled to carry out safeguarding investigations where it has concerns about a vulnerable adult living in its area. Meetings would not usually involve the person who the concerns were about. Therefore, there is no evidence of fault by the Council and we will not investigate this complaint.
- There is also no evidence of fault in how the Council has dealt with Mr X and his family generally. Professionals have a duty to raise concerns about the welfare of vulnerable adults and the Council has a duty to investigate any concerns. The Council says there is no evidence it implied he had difficulties with professionals of a certain background. It says there is a record of a comment made by Mr X relating to this for which he later apologised. Therefore we will not investigate as it is unlikely an investigation would find fault with the actions of the Council.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is no evidence of fault by the Council.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman