Summary: Mr X complained the Council did not inform him when it received safeguarding alerts relating to his child. We will not investigate this late complaint. Mr X could have complained to us earlier after finding out about the Council’s involvement, and we could not carry out a fair investigation now. Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s more recent response to his information requests would be better dealt with by the Information Commissioner’s Office.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained the Council did not tell him him when it received safeguarding alerts relating to his child several years ago. The alerts related to accusations against Mr X, and he had not been given the opportunity to defend himself. He found out about the Council’s involvement during an employment tribunal in 2016.
2. Mr X also complains the Council has not responded properly to his request for information. He asked in 2019 for it to send a chronology of its involvement. It sent him a page of information which he does not believe satisfies his request.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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)
4. We cannot investigate a complaint about the start of court action or what happened in court. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5/5A, paragraph 1/3, as amended)
5. We investigate complaints about councils and certain other bodies. We cannot investigate the actions of bodies such as the Police. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 25 and 34A, as amended)
6. 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

7. I considered the information Mr X provided when he complained to us.
8. I considered information the Council sent.
9. I gave Mr X the opportunity to comment on a draft version of my decision.

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What I found

10. The Council received alerts several years ago relating to Mr X’s child. These came after Mr X and the child’s mother separated, with both parents having made allegations against each other. Mr X says the Council did not make him aware at the time it had received alerts. The Council says it closed the case both times due to being satisfied the child was safe, but Mr X says the Council held meetings and shared information with other bodies without affording Mr X an opportunity to defend himself. He says this has had several impacts, including on his employment as the allegations, which he says were unfounded, led to him being dismissed from his job.
11. It was during the subsequent employment tribunal in 2016 that Mr X says he found out about the Council’s previous involvement. I have considered Mr X’s description of the distress that followed and the reasons he therefore did not complain to the Council until 2019, and then the Ombudsman in 2020. However, there is not a sufficient reason Mr X did not raise his complaint three years sooner. In addition, due to the significant time that has lapsed since the referrals the Council received, the first of which was over 10 years ago, we would not have a good prospect of coming to a fair decision.
12. Mr X says the Council provided information to the courts. We cannot consider what happened in court, which includes the content of any reports written for court. In any event, it is ultimately the police and courts that made the decisions Mr X is unhappy with, and we cannot investigate their actions. We also do not have the powers that the police and the courts do, to decide which parent’s version of events was accurate and to make decisions about the child’s residence and contact with parents.
13. Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s response to his request for information is one that would best be dealt with by the Information Commissioner’s Office. It is open to Mr X to contact that organisation as it is responsible for considering organisations’ information practices. There is not a good reason, in this case, for us to investigate the information request alone as we cannot investigate the rest of the complaint.

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Final decision

14. The Ombudsman will not investigate this late complaint. This is because Mr X could have complained sooner, and it is unlikely we could carry out a fair investigation due to the time that has passed. Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s information practices would best be dealt with by the Information Commissioner’s Office.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman