Summary: We have discontinued our investigation into Ms B’s complaint. It is late, and there are no good reasons to exercise discretion and investigate events from 2016 to early 2018.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I refer to as Ms B, complains about the Council’s children’s services department, and its actions towards her and her family between 2016 and early 2018.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by Ms B and the Council. I wrote to Ms B and the Council with my draft decision and considered their comments.

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What I found

What happened?

4. The Council’s children’s services department was involved, to varying degrees, with Ms B’s family from 2016. It was involved under section 17 of the Children Act (when it categorised Ms B’s child as a ‘child in need’), before making the child subject to a child protection plan. The child then became looked-after by the Council in 2017.
5. There was court action in early 2018. Ms B’s complaint takes in most aspects of how the Council discharged its duties under the Children Act prior to the court hearing.
6. Ms B had a meeting with the Council in June 2018, at which she set out some of the areas of the Council’s practice with which she was dissatisfied. She says the Council made promises at the meeting which it then failed to keep. The Council says it asked Ms B for more information about her complaint more than once, but she did not respond.
7. Ms B says she continued to raise issues with her social worker between June 2018 and February 2019. However, she did not provide the Council with more details about her formal complaint until July 2019. The Council refused to investigate the complaint because it was over 12 months since the complaint issues had occurred. Ms B then approached the Ombudsman.

My findings

8. The Local Government Act does not allow me to investigate late complaints unless there are good reasons. ‘Good reasons’ may include a complainant not becoming aware of alleged maladministration for over a year, or if they are unable, for whatever reason, to complain earlier.
9. Ms B first became aware of the matters she complains about in 2016 and 2017, so her complaint is, by the definition set out in the Act, late. She says she could not make her complaint earlier because she suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) – which she was diagnosed with in April 2018.
10. I am not a medical professional, and therefore cannot say for certain whether Ms B’s health issues actually prevented her from making a complaint. However, I have considered whether, on balance, I should exercise discretion and investigate her late complaint.
11. In my view, I should not exercise discretion. Although I acknowledge the issues Ms B is experiencing, they do not justify over a year of inaction on her part. It seems unlikely that, during that period, Ms B was completely unable to write down a list of her complaints and email it to the Council, or to make a complaint by telephone. This is particularly the case as the complaints meeting Ms B had with the Council was two months after her PTSD diagnosis, which suggests she was able to pursue the complaint despite her mental health issues.
12. As I do not consider there to be good enough reasons why this complaint is late, I cannot investigate it.

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Final decision

13. I have discontinued my investigation into Ms B’s complaint. It is late, and there are no good reasons to exercise discretion and investigate events from 2016 to early 2018.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman