Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s involvement with Mrs X’s family. The Council is not responsible for preventing Mrs X’s contact with her family member. There is insufficient injustice related to Mrs X’s complaint the Council failed to communicate with her.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complained about the Council’s involvement with her family member. She says it has dismissed her concerns as a family feud, and it has ignored her attempts to contact it. She has been denied contact with her family member.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We cannot investigate a complaint where the body complained about is not responsible for the issue being raised. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(1), as amended)
3. 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 injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Mrs X says she has been prevented from having contact with her family member by another family member. This is not a decision made by the Council, and so is outside our jurisdiction as it is not an administrative function of the Council. It is open to Mrs X to seek legal advice with a view to pursuing private proceedings against the family member who she says is preventing their contact.
7. Mrs X complained the Council had ignored her attempts to contact it. This, in the wider context of her complaint as a whole, has not caused a significant injustice to Mrs X and it is not a good use of public resources for us to investigate this alone. Increased communications with the Council would not have changed the end outcome.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of injustice linked to the part of the complaint we could investigate.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman