Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about children services actions between 20 and 30 years ago. There are no good reasons why the late complaint rule should not apply.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Miss X, says the Council’s children services team failed to protect and support her.

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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/care provider 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 Miss X provided with her complaint, the SAR she made to the Council and its reply to her complaint. Miss X had the opportunity to comment on a draft version of this complaint.

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What I found

4. Miss X, who is now 31, asked the Council to provide all the documents it has on her between 1990 and 2002. She says the Council during that time failed to support and protect her.
5. The Council says it is complying with Miss X’s SAR, but that it will not reply to her complaint. It says the events are too old for its complaints procedure.

Analysis

6. We will not dis-apply the late complaint rule in historic cases unless we have very clear reasons for doing so. I am not satisfied we do because:
1. I am not confident there is a realistic prospect of reaching a sound, fair, and meaningful decision. This is particularly so in this case because the time which has passed since the events to be investigated makes it more difficult to establish the material facts with reasonable confidence. We are less likely to be able to gather sufficient evidence to reach a sound judgement. Even if some evidence is available, it would be particularly impracticable to ensure it is reliable, and provides a full picture.

and

2. I am not satisfied Miss X could not reasonably be expected to have complained sooner.

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Final decision

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

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman