Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about how the Council dealt with her concerns about her relative from 2021. This is because most of the complaint is late and even if we exercised discretion to investigate, including the matters within time, it is unlikely we would find sufficient evidence of fault causing a personal injustice to Ms X.

The complaint

1. In short, Ms X says she has been complaining since 2021 to raise her concerns about a relative who needed care and support.
2. Ms X says it was not until 2024 that her relative was placed in a care home. Ms X says she has been caused stress and lost her job due to her time and trouble taken in complaining. Ms X would like to be compensated for her losses.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
4. 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)
5. 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
• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained.

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

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
7. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

8. Ms X says the Council should have safeguarded her relative to a care home earlier than when it did in 2024. Ms X wants to be compensated for ill health and losses arising from her time and trouble taken in complaining to the Council since 2021.
9. The Council’s complaint response to Ms X also says she has made a late complaint. It found no evidence of fault in its actions to justify a financial remedy. Overall, it considers it took appropriate action firstly in 2022, by organising a care package at home and, last year, with the care home admission.
10. We will not investigate as this is a late complaint, certainly with respect to the events from 2021 – 2023. Ms X brought her complaint to us this year. While potentially we could look at what happened in 2024, I see no good reasons to investigate given we are unlikely to find sufficient evidence of fault causing Ms X’s claimed injustice of losing her job and ill health and so on.
11. Financial loss and personal injury are matters for the courts to adjudicate and not the Ombudsman. Should Ms X wish to submit a claim against the Council it would need to be made via the courts. The courts could then make a finding on whether the Council was liable and, if so, whether to award any damages Ms X seeks. It is not a matter the Ombudsman could rule on.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because it is late and there are no good reasons to exercise discretion to consider it now.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman