Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the actions of social workers in deciding Ms X’s child should be subject to a Child Protection Plan. This is not warranted by the claimed injustice.

The complaint

1. Ms X said the Council’s response to her complaint contained errors. The complaint response concerned child protection action taken by the Council.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Ombudsman investigates complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact 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 or may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. The complaint correspondence shows the Council Ms X’s son subject to a child protection plan after receiving referrals. It also shows police involvement. The matter that led to this was of a kind that would usually lead to child protection action.
6. The Council found fault in some matters of communication. It is unlikely these caused significant injustice or affected the outcome.

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Final decision

7. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because:

• there is insufficient evidence of fault in the decision to take child protection action; and
• investigation of the remaining matters is not warranted by the likely injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman