Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s children services actions. We are unlikely to be able to achieve a significant outcome. And we could not accept a complaint from Ms X on behalf of her nephew and nieces.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Ms X, complains about the way the Council’s children services team supported her sister and carried out an assessment.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We may investigate complaints made on behalf of someone else if they have given their consent. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26A(1), as amended)
3. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse effect on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start an investigation if we decide the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by Ms X and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Ms X says the Council failed to:
• Support her sister in 2020, who later died.
• Properly assess the father of her sister’s children to check that it was safe for the children to live with him.
• Provide her with minutes of meetings.
• Communicate properly with her.
7. The Council replied to Ms X’s complaint at stage one and two of its corporate complaints’ procedure. It accepted some failings. It apologised. It said it could not provide details of the father’s assessment process as Ms X did not have parental responsibility for the children involved.
8. The children now live with their father in a different Council area. Investigating the Council’s 2020 assessment of the father now could not achieve anything significantly different for the children’s lives. If Ms X continues to have safeguarding concerns, she can tell the Council in the area in which the father lives. It then has to consider those concerns.
9. We could not accept a complaint from Ms X on behalf of the children as she does not have parental responsibility for them.
10. It is unlikely we could achieve more than the Council’s explanations for its actions towards Ms X’s sister in 2020. We would not be able to draw any causal link between the Council’s actions and her death.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because it is unlikely we could achieve a significant outcome and we could not accept a complaint from Ms X on behalf of her nephew and nieces.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman