Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about making reasonable adjustments. This is because further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.

The complaint

1. Mrs Y complains about the Council’s failure to make reasonable adjustments in its communication to her.
2. Mrs Y says this has affected her health, safety and finances causing her distress.
3. Mrs Y wants the Council to recognise the Equality Act breaches, the impact on her and provide further staff training in disability law. Mrs Y wants her blue badge decision communicated in the accessible format and wants a financial remedy for the distress and financial impact.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. 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 further investigation would not lead to a different outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), section 34(B))

5. If we are satisfied with an organisation’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and s34H(1), 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 Y.
8. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

9. Mrs Y applied for a blue badge. She contacted the Council to enquire about the progress and decision.
10. Mrs Y complained to the Council about its communication with her despite being told she required reasonable adjustments. Mrs Y says the Council communicated with her verbally when she asked for written communication and placed her on hold repeatedly without explanation.
11. The Council accepted fault and apologised to Mrs Y. It has recorded Mrs Y’s reasonable adjustments on its systems and identified staff training needs and has agreed to put this in place.
12. Mrs Y complains the Council sent the written communication to the wrong email address. In its response, the Council says it used the email address on Mrs Y’s blue badge application form, on which there was a spelling error.
13. Due to the complaint, the Council has taken steps on its blue badge email to ensure it can identify emails that bounce back because they have gone to a wrong email address. This will ensure this issue doesn’t happen again.
14. As the Council has provided suitable remedies in line with our Guidance on Remedies, further investigation would not lead to a different outcome. Therefore, we will not investigate.
15. Mrs Y also complains about how the Council dealt with her complaint under the complaints procedure. The Council has admitted delays in the complaints procedure and apologised for this. We will not usually investigate complaint handling if we are not investigating the rest of the complaint.

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Final decision

We will not investigate Mrs Y’s complaint because further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman