Summary: We will discontinue our investigation into Mrs X’s complaint about how the Council’s children’s social care service dealt with her daughter’s case. Her daughter is now an adult and has not provided any consent for us to investigate the complaint. Although we could investigate part of the complaint – about Mrs X’s own alleged injustice – anyway, we would not be able to disclose any information to her and there is not enough evidence of fault or injustice to justify taking this approach.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains that the Council failed to support or protect her adopted daughter, Miss Y, when she started seeing (and subsequently moved in with) her birth family.
2. Mrs X says the Council:
• allowed Y to decide where (and with whom) she lived, although she was not old enough to do so;
• ignored an Adoption Order which gave parental responsibility to Mrs X;
• ignored the reasons for the Order, which were significant safeguarding concerns about Y’s birth family;
• failed to work with Mrs X, listen to her wishes or keep her informed;
• was biased against Mrs X;
• delayed responding to Mrs X’s stage 2 complaint; and
• failed to respond to Mrs X’s subject access request.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
4. It is our decision whether to start, and when to end an investigation into something the law allows us to investigate. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 24A(6) and 34B(8), as amended)
5. We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or if there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
6. We may investigate complaints made on behalf of someone else if they have given their consent. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26A(1), as amended)
7. We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
8. We normally expect someone to refer the matter to the Information Commissioner if they have a complaint about data protection. However, we may decide to investigate if we think there are good reasons. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

9. I considered evidence provided by Mrs X and the Council.
10. Mrs X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments before making a final decision.

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What I found

11. Mrs X complains about a period in late 2024 and early 2025, which started with Miss Y disclosing that she had been in touch with her birth family, progressed to Miss Y moving in with her birth father, and ended with the Council completing an assessment and deciding there was no reason to intervene. Mrs X is very unhappy with the assessment.
12. All of these things happened while Miss Y was 17. Mrs X had parental responsibility for her. She had the right to access Miss Y’s records and to make a complaint about how the Council had discharged its social work duties to Miss Y.
13. However, Miss Y has since turned 18 (and, in fact, did so before Mrs X approached us). This means Mrs X’s parental responsibility for her has expired. Miss Y has provided no consent for us to investigate the complaint, and therefore I cannot do so.
14. Mrs X has asked if, despite a lack of consent from Miss Y, we could conduct a limited investigation into things which only affected Mrs X herself.
15. Such an investigation is possible. But, if I took that approach, I could not disclose any information to Mrs X from Miss Y’s records. This would include any information about things which happened even prior to her 18th birthday. This is all Miss Y’s data, and I cannot share it with a third party without her approval.
16. This provides a significant obstacle to any investigation of Mrs X’s complaint. Without being able to disclose any information about Miss Y, my ability to make specific findings or recommendations would be severely restricted to the point that it is unlikely they would be of any benefit to Mrs X.
17. Nonetheless, I have considered the documents which have already been provided by Mrs X, including the assessment in question. I see that the Council visited Miss Y’s birth father and considered whether there were any risks to her while she was living there. It noted that she was “safe and happy”, and that:

[Her] age does need to be taken [into] consideration here. She cannot be forced to live with her adoptive parents and its clear she is no longer happy there, [she] is nearly 18 and this is a decision she has made for herself.

18. These were professional judgments which, in all likelihood, I would be unable to question. Even if there were some fault in the way the Council conducted the assessment, this would not necessarily undermine the outcome. The decision about Miss Y’s ability to make her own decisions appears fair, given that she was a few weeks from turning 18 and was, to my knowledge, without any mental capacity issues.
19. Given this lack of obvious fault, I am not satisfied that even a limited investigation into Mrs X’s alleged injustice would be beneficial, given the restrictions I have set out above. I will not consider this matter further.
20. Although Mrs X also complains about the Council’s handling of her stage 2 complaint, we do not generally consider it a good use of public resources to look into a council’s complaint-handling when we are not considering the substantive issues. I will not do so here.
21. Finally, Mrs X complains about the Council’s handling of her subject access request. But the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is better suited to consider such complaints. Mrs X should approach the ICO if she wants to pursue this matter.

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Decision

22. I have discontinued my investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman