North Tyneside Metropolitan Borough Council (24 014 027)

Category : Adult care services > Safeguarding

Decision : Closed after initial enquiries

Decision date : 03 Dec 2024

The Ombudsman's final decision:

Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of her safeguarding concerns, and its communication. There is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating.

The complaint

  1. Mrs X complains the Council failed to take appropriate action after she raised safeguarding concerns about her mother, Ms Y. She is unhappy with its communication on the matter. She also complains about the Council’s breaches of data protection law.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

  1. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
  2. 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 not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
  • there is another body better placed to consider this complaint.

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

  1. We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
  2. The Information Commissioner's Office considers complaints about freedom of information. Its decision notices may be appealed to the First Tier Tribunal (Information Rights). So where we receive complaints about freedom of information, we normally consider it reasonable to expect the person to refer the matter to the Information Commissioner.

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

  1. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
  2. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

Back to top

My assessment

  1. The Council investigated Mrs X’s concerns and found no reason to take safeguarding action. I have reviewed key documents, including the Council’s safeguarding reports. While I appreciate Mrs X is unhappy with the outcome of her referral, I am satisfied the Council investigated and decided in line with its published policy. There is not enough evidence of fault to justify an investigation.
  2. It is not a good use of public resources to look at the Council’s communication in isolation when I will not investigate the substantive matter of the complaint.
  3. It is reasonable to expect Mrs X to take any complaints about the Council’s data handling to the Information Commissioner’s Office for its consideration. It is the appropriate body to review such matters.

Back to top

Final decision

  1. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

Print this page

LGO logogram

Review your privacy settings

Required cookies

These cookies enable the website to function properly. You can only disable these by changing your browser preferences, but this will affect how the website performs.

View required cookies

Analytical cookies

Google Analytics cookies help us improve the performance of the website by understanding how visitors use the site.
We recommend you set these 'ON'.

View analytical cookies

In using Google Analytics, we do not collect or store personal information that could identify you (for example your name or address). We do not allow Google to use or share our analytics data. Google has developed a tool to help you opt out of Google Analytics cookies.

Privacy settings