Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint about the involvement of the Council’s social services with the complainants’ family. This is because we could not add anything further to the Council’s investigation or provide the outcome that the complainants seek.

The complaint

1. The complainants, who I refer to here as Mr and Mrs J, say that a referral to the Council’s social services was badly and unfairly handled by their social worker.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe:

• it is unlikely we could add to any previous investigation by the Council, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered the information provided by Mr and Mrs J and by the Council. I have also sent Mr and Mrs J a draft decision for their comments.

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What I found

4. Following disclosures by Mr and Mrs J’s children about concerns for their mother, a referral was made to social services, to consider whether there were safeguarding implications for the children or for Mrs J.
5. Mr and Mrs J say that the referral was badly handled, in particular by their social worker, and they made a number of complaints about it to the Council.
6. The Council responded to the complaints at stage two of its complaints procedure. Mr and Mrs J remained dissatisfied with the response, and have now complained to the Ombudsman.
7. We will not investigate the complaint however, as we could not add anything further to the Council’s investigation. This is because some of the issues were inconclusive, some were upheld with apologies offered, and some were not upheld as they were considered to be part of the necessary intervention process following referral.
8. The council was unable to establish the truth of some of the issues raised, leading to the inconclusive findings, as the social worker involved is no longer in its employ. If Mr and Mrs D wish to follow up their complaint about the social worker they would need to complain to the Care and Health Professionals Council, the regulatory body for social workers, as it is not something the Ombudsman can consider.
9. Mr J blames the Council for the loss of his job, and is looking for compensation for loss of earnings. However, I have seen no evidence to suggest his job loss, although unfortunate, was caused by fault by the Council.
10. Mr and Mrs J say that the outcome that they want to achieve is for their social services file to be wiped clean as they dispute its accuracy. This is not something that we or social services and do, as it is a record of what happened. The Council has, however, agreed to put Mr and Mrs J’s views onto their file.

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Final decision

11. Subject to any comments Mr and Mrs J might make, my view is that the Ombudsman should not investigate this complaint. This is because we could not add anything further to the previous investigation by the Council or achieve the outcome that the complainants want.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman