Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision to stop providing Y with transport, which Mr X alleges was due to racism. This is because the complaint relates to events that took place more than 12 months ago and it would have been reasonable for Mr X to refer the complaint to us at the time. Further, even if we did exercise discretion, we would be unlikely to find fault on with the Council’s actions.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained that the Council’s failure to provide transport to his child Y’s day centre was due to racism.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)
3. 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.

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

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Mr X’s child Y has a learning disability. After England went into lockdown in March 2020, the Council began providing transport for Y to attend a day centre.
7. In August 2020, the Council told Mr X it could no longer provide Y with transport. Mr X complained about the Council’s decision and brought his complaint to the Ombudsman. In January 2022, we found fault with some of the Council’s actions but did not investigate Mr X’s complaint regarding racism because the Council had not had the opportunity to deal with it first.
8. Mr X complained to the Council in February 2022 and said he believed the Council stopped Y's transport due to racism. The Council responded by investigating Mr X’s concerns and providing detailed information regarding the ethnicity of its service users and the treatment each had received. The Council did not find evidence of racism in its management of deciding which service users to withdraw transport from and maintained that its decision to stop Y’s transport was based on the order of priority needs of its service users.
9. Mr X remains unhappy with the situation and wants us to find the Council at fault. The Ombudsman will not investigate events that the complainant was aware of more than 12 months ago unless there are good reasons to do so. The evidence shows Mr X complained to the Council regarding this aspect of the complaint in February 2022 but did not refer it to us until September 2023, well over 12 months later. I can see no good reason why Mr X to bring this matter to our attention at the time.
10. Further, the evidence shows the Council has carried out a thorough and detailed investigation and it has been transparent in how it arrived at is conclusion that racism did not play a part in its decision. An investigation would therefore be unlikely to result a finding of fault on the Council’s part.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because the complaint relates to events that took place more than 12 months ago and it would have been reasonable for Mr X to refer the complaint to us at the time. Further, even if we did exercise discretion we would be unlikely to find fault on the Council’s part.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman