Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about the Council’s reply to her complaint. The events she complains about are over seven years old and there are no good reasons the late complaint rule should not apply.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Ms X, says the Council delayed in providing a remedy to her complaint and it is not enough.

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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 Ms X provided and the Council’s replies which it provided. I considered Ms X’s comments on a draft version of this decision.

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What I found

4. In 2013, Ms X complained to the Council about various issues about its children services team’s involvement in her family life.
5. The law sets out a three stage procedure for councils to follow when looking at complaints about children’s social care services. At Stage Two of this procedure, the Council appoints an Investigating Officer and an Independent Person (who is responsible for overseeing the investigation). If a complainant is unhappy with the outcome of the Stage Two investigation, they can ask for a Stage Three review. If a council has investigated something under this procedure, we would not normally re-investigate it unless we consider that investigation was flawed. However, we may look at whether a council properly considered the findings and recommendations of the independent investigation.
6. The Council produced a Stage Two report in 2014. It upheld parts of Ms X’s complaint and recommended a remedy. The Council said it promised to hold a meeting with the head of service following this report, but that never happened.
7. We have an email from Ms X’s solicitors chasing the response three years later in November 2017.
8. 14 months later in February 2019, Ms X, via her solicitors, chased the Council again. It looked into what had happened. It wrote to her in June 2019, explained the remedy it proposed and explained Ms X could seek a Stage Three Review. The Council has provided proof of postage which it says was a request to the solicitors to provided information so the payment could be made.
9. A year later, in June 2020, Ms X’s solicitors chased again, saying it had not received the remedy. The Council replied in July refusing a Stage Three as it was unlikely to change the remedy. Ms X’s solicitors complained to us five months later in November 2020.
10. Ms X says the remedy is not enough. She says there have been significant delays in the complaints’ process for which she should also receive a remedy.

Analysis

11. We can only investigate a complaint which is about events more than 12 months ago if there are good reasons to do so. The events which prompted Ms X’s complaint are over 7 years ago.
12. We need clear reasons for not applying the late complaint rule. I am not satisfied there are clear and compelling reasons for this because:
1. I am not confident there is a realistic prospect of reaching a sound, fair, and meaningful decision. This is particularly so because :
1. We are less likely to be able to gather enough evidence to reach a sound judgement which contradicts the Stage Two report.
2. It is unlikely we will be able to achieve a meaningful remedy, given the time that has already passed.
3. There is difficulty in showing causality over a long time period.
4. Parties situations have changed.
2. And I am not satisfied Ms X could not reasonably be expected to have complained sooner. She has not consistently pursued her complaint either in person or via her solicitors from 2013 onwards. There are significant long periods of inactivity when it is reasonable to expect Ms X, and her advocates, to have chased the Council or complained to us.
13. It is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures, if we are unable to deal with the substantive issue.

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Final decision

14. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because there are no good reasons the late complaint rule should not apply.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman