Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the Council’s children services team’s actions 15 years ago. There are no compelling reasons not to apply the late complaint rule.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Mrs X, says the Council failed to take action to prevent people harming her children.

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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 the information Mrs X provided with her complaint. Mrs X had the opportunity to comment on a draft version of this decision.

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What I found

4. Mrs X says that in 2004 she asked the Council and the Police for help when a person took her child. She says no one helped her. She says since then people harmed three of her children. She says the Council should have prevented this and helped the family more. She says one of the alleged perpetrators was convicted of criminal offences in 2013.
5. Mrs X says her children have been irreparably harmed.

Analysis

6. We cannot investigate complaints about events known to Mrs X for more than twelve months without compelling reasons. We will not usually do so unless the following two tests are met:
1. We are confident there is a realistic prospect of reaching a sound, fair, and meaningful decision, and
2. We are satisfied Mrs X could not reasonably be expected to have complained sooner.
7. I am not satisfied these two tests are met because:
1. The further away in time an investigation takes place from the events to be investigated, the more difficult it may be to find out the material facts with reasonable confidence. In older cases we are less likely to be able to gather enough evidence to reach a sound judgement. Even if some evidence is available, we would need to be careful to ensure it is reliable, and provides a full picture. This complaint goes back 15 years. Mrs X has said at least two of the people involved are now dead.
2. Mrs X mentions the Police and the Courts. Neither of whose actions can we investigate.
3. In historical cases, it is more difficult to achieve a meaningful remedy. This is because of the time which has passed, the difficulty in proving causality over longer time periods, and parties change of situation.
4. Mrs X provided no reasons it has taken until now to complain to us.

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Final decision

8. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because there are no compelling reasons the late complaint rule should not be applied.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman