Herefordshire Council (21 012 219)
Category : Children's care services > Adoption
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 07 Jan 2022
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s failure to provide therapist support. This is because the Council has taken action to remedy the complaint and there is nothing further we could achieve.
The complaint
- Mr X complained the Council did not provide therapist support for his adoptive son, Y. Mr X also complains the Council did not provide detail about why the support was not provided and says the service he received was poor.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Ombudsman investigates 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 may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide:
- there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
- we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
- further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
- The complainant had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered his comments before making a final decision.
My assessment
- The Council offered therapist support to Y during the adoption process.
- The therapist was absent due to illness and unable to provide the support.
- Mr X asked for support from a different therapist. The Council offered alternative support, not from a therapist, which Mr X declined.
- Mr X complained to the Council. The Council offered an alternative therapist which Mr X accepted. The alternative therapist started work with Y.
- The Council failed to provide the therapist support agreed. However, it offered alternatives and provided a remedy. There is nothing further we can achieve for Mr X.
- We should not investigate this complaint because the Council has already provided a remedy, we are therefore unable to achieve anything more for Mr X.
Final decision
- We will not investigate this complaint. This is because there is nothing further we could achieve by investigating this complaint.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman