Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s late complaint about the Council’s handling of his grandchild’s child protection case. This is because he has not provided a good reason for the delay in him bringing it to the Ombudsman.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained about the Council's handling of his grandchildren's child protection case. His complaint includes that the Council:
• Included inaccurate and misleading information about Mr X in its assessments which it has since sent to other agencies.
• Based its subsequent decisions about his contact with his grandchildren on this information and in spite of contact being beneficial to his grandchildren.
• Was slow, ineffective and obstructive in responding to his concerns, compounding the impact of this by missing opportunities to manage and minimise the disruption caused.
2. This caused significant stress and anxiety, and impacted Mr X’s relationship with his grandchildren.

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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)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered the information Mr X provided when he complained to us.
5. I considered Mr X’s comments on my draft decision.

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What I found

6. Around June 2019, the Council issued a report relating to Mr X’s grandchildren. This included information saying Mr X had been arrested in 2016 and convicted of an offence against a child. Mr X wrote to the Council and told it this was not true. The Council had subsequently changed the arrangements for Mr X’s contact with his grandchildren, which he did not think was warranted.
7. Mr X chased the Council for a response and made further complaints to it in August and September 2019. The Council provided a final complaint response to Mr X in November 2019, explaining he could bring his complaint to the Ombudsman if he remained dissatisfied. The Council agreed to amend the report as it was not entirely accurate, although it explained this would not change its decisions about contact arrangements because Mr X had been arrested in a different year than stated, and the family court did find Mr X had harmed a child.
8. Mr X complained to us in October 2020. This was 16 months after the events that he complains about. We cannot investigate complaints brought to us more than 12 months after events unless there are good reasons for the delay.
9. Some of the timescales are explained by the Council’s complaints procedures having been ongoing. Mr X chased the Council for a response during that time, although overall the complaints procedures did not account for a large delay. Mr X was in a position to bring his complaint to us, having completed the Council’s procedures, in November 2019, although I have accounted for his assertion that he wanted to leave some time before doing so, to allow the Council to take the steps it had promised. He left the matter for four months and then needed to shield due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
10. Mr X also refers to the Ombudsman having paused taking new complaints during this time. However, this accounted for only three months, between March and June 2020. There is a significant unexplained period between November 2019 and October 2020. Mr X has explained the time period in part for several reasons, however there is not sufficient reason for us to disapply the requirement for people to bring complaints to us within 12 months of events. Mr X could have complained to us at the end of 2019 or early 2020.

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Final decision

11. The Ombudsman will not investigate this late complaint. This is because there is not a good reason for the delay in Mr X bringing the complaint to us.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman