Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the care provided to Ms Y’s relative. This is because the core complaint matters are late and there are no good reasons for the Ombudsman to investigate now. And there is insufficient evidence of injustice in the Council’s complaints handling.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains, on behalf of Ms Y, about the Council’s handling of Ms Y’s complaint made in September 2025.
2. Mrs X complains the Council acknowledged the complaint in September 2025 but advised it would not respond to matters that had already been addressed.
3. Mrs X says the Council failed to explain what earlier complaint had been considered. She also says the Council failed to respond to enquiries seeking updates about the complaint and later promised a further response but did not do so.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
5. 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)
6. We will not usually investigate complaint handling if we are not investigating the rest of the complaint. This is because there is not usually enough injustice to justify us doing so. We collect information about particularly poor complaint handling practice and report this back to organisations. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), section 34B(8))

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How I considered this complaint

7. I considered information provided by Mrs X which includes the Council’s response.
8. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

9. We will not investigate. This is because the complaint is late and caught by the time restriction on the Ombudsman’s powers. Although the complaint was sent to the Council in September 2025, the core complaint issues concern the care of Ms Y’s relative between October 2024 and February 2025. Ms Y was aware of the core matters she now wishes to raise; at the time they occurred. I have seen no indication that she was prevented from bringing her concerns to the Ombudsman within 12 months of becoming aware of them. So I do not see good reasons to investigate now.
10. Mrs X’s complaint to us was made in June 2026, more than 12 months after the substantive events concerning Ms Y’s relative’s care. While Mrs X points out that Ms Y is dissatisfied with the Council's subsequent complaint handling, that does not alter the fact that the underlying concerns arose significantly earlier. I have seen no good reason for us to investigate these late matters now.
11. In addition, we would not usually investigate a complaint about the Council's complaint handling as a standalone issue where we are not investigating the core matters in the complaint. Any fault in the complaints process would not, by itself, justify an investigation when the underlying issues are outside our normal time limits. I do not consider there is sufficient evidence of injustice caused by the Council’s complaint handling on its own.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because it is late and there are no good reasons to investigate the core complaint matters. And there is insufficient evidence of injustice in the Council’s complaints handling.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman