Oxfordshire County Council (22 015 187)
Category : Children's care services > Adoption
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 22 Feb 2023
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this late complaint about an adoption decision. There is no good reason to exercise the discretion available to investigate the matters complained of now.
The complaint
- Mr X complained the Council wrongly halted his adoption of a child and did not deal with his complaint properly, taking too long and not meeting him or asking him for any further information.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
- 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)
It is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures, if we are unable to deal with the substantive issue.
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- The substantive matter leading to the complaint is a Council decision not to proceed with Mr X’s planned adoption of a child in July 2021. We may exercise the available discretion to investigate a latter matter if a person was not aware of it at the time, or if they could not have complained sooner.
- Mr X was aware of the Council’s decision and complained to the Council about it. The Council’s final response to him was dated 2 February 2022 and recorded as being sent by email. While he could not complain to us while the Council was dealing with his complaint, he could have done so by July 2022.
- It is arguable whether Mr X received the Council’s final response within 12 months of the date he complained to us. But that is not relevant. We will not investigate the substantive matters complained of, so it would not be a good use of public resources to investigate the complaint about the Council’s complaint procedure.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because the substantive matters complained of are late and there is no good reason to exercise the discretion available to investigate them now. It is not a good use of public resources to investigate the Council’s complaint handling alone.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman