Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about a safeguarding enquiry concerning his parent plus the Council’s decision not to share information with him. There is no evidence of a significant injustice. And there is another body better placed to consider.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about the Council’s alleged failure to safeguard his relative who is an adult in need of care and support. Mr X says the Council’s safeguarding enquiry was inadequate and he has been blocked from accessing information about his relative.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

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:

• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.
• there is another body better placed to consider this complaint.

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

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant which includes the Council’s response.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Mr X’s complaint documents show he started raising complaints in 2023 about the care of his parent by another family member.
6. In 2024 the Council carried out a ‘best interests’ assessment process to decide Mr X’s parent’s future care. It also opened a safeguarding investigation into Mr X’s concerns.
7. Mr X complained about the outcome of the safeguarding investigation as it did not uphold his concerns. He said the decision had not been made transparently as he had not been supplied with the safeguarding information leading to the Council’s decision.
8. The Council wrote to Mr X explaining it could not share data relating to his parent as it did not consider him to have legal authority.
9. In 2025 Mr X wrote to the Council with his concerns. The Council advised it would not be investigating for the reasons it had explained last year.
10. Our role is to consider complaints where the person bringing the complaint has suffered significant personal injustice as a direct result of the actions or inactions of the organisation. While I appreciate Mr X disagrees strongly with the Council’s safeguarding outcome, there is no evidence of a significant personal injustice caused to Mr X. So, we will not investigate.
11. With respect to the complaint about the Council not making the safeguarding information available to Mr X, we will not investigate. This is because the national regulator for information rights, the office of the Information Commissioner, is better placed to consider.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is no evidence of a significant personal injustice. There is another body better placed to consider Mr X’s right to information about his parent.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman