Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the way the Council interacts with him during its communication with him. This is because some of the issues he complains about are late and of the other matters that are not late, there is another body that would be better suited to look at his complaint, and there is otherwise no worthwhile outcome we can achieve.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained about the conduct of several officers involved in his social care, in particular:
• In the past they have engaged in victim blaming;
• they behaved in a way that left him feeling disempowered, and;
• they were threatening and behaved in an oppressive manner in a meeting.
2. Mr X also said previous commitments the Council made relating to training are unsatisfactory.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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)
4. 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 continue an investigation if we decide:

• there is another body better placed to consider this complaint, or
• there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by Mr X and I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Mr X sent us his concerns about how the Council interacted with him previously, including an incident which occurred in 2022. He also met with another social worker and senior Council officers following his complaints. Mr X said he found these interactions amounted to oppressive behaviours.
7. We will not investigate the 2022 issues; this is a late complaint and there are no good reasons why Mr X could not have made it sooner. Nor will we investigate matters which in our view are better suited to be considered by Social Work England.
8. Finally, we will not investigate the meeting and commitments to training, involving senior Council officers as there is no worthwhile outcome we can achieve in investigating.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because parts are late and of the other parts some are better considered by another body and otherwise there is no worthwhile outcome we can achieve.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman