Sheffield City Council (24 021 909)
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We have upheld Mr X’s complaint because the Council failed to inform Mr X of the reason to not consider his complaint and did not share the outcome of its safeguarding investigation with him. The Council has now agreed to resolve the complaint by apologising and informing him of the outcome of its safeguarding investigation.
The complaint
- Mr X complains the Council failed to respond to his complaint when he raised safeguarding concerns.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we are satisfied with the actions an organisation has taken or proposes to take. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(7), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mr X was worried about the care his father-in-law received from a care provider, so he raised his concerns with the Council.
- The Council looked into the concerns through a safeguarding investigation and decided that this was the right way to handle the issue instead of using the complaints process. However, the Council did not explain this to Mr X or share the results of its investigation with him
- If we investigated this complaint, it is likely we would find the Council at fault, because it should have told Mr X why it wasn’t treating his concerns as a complaint and should have given him the outcome of the safeguarding investigation.
- We therefore asked the Council to consider remedying the injustice caused by its actions, by apologising within one month and providing an outcome of its safeguarding investigation to Mr X.
Final decision
- We have upheld Mr X’s complaint because the Council failed to inform Mr X of the reason to not consider his complaint and did not share the outcome of its safeguarding investigation with him. The Council has now agreed to resolve the complaint by apologising and informing him of the outcome of its safeguarding investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman