Summary: We will not investigate this complaint that the Council has failed to safeguard the complainant’s son. The complaint is late and there are no grounds to consider it now.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I will refer to as Mrs B, complains that the Council has failed to take action to safeguard her son.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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 may decide not to start an investigation if the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
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)
4. We cannot investigate a complaint about the start of court action or what happened in court. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5/5A, paragraph 1/3, as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. Mrs B’s son is in the care of his stepfather. Mrs B complains that the Council has failed to safeguard him from harm, abuse and neglect. She wants the Council to investigate her concerns and to remove her son from his stepfather’s care.
8. The correspondence I have seen shows that Mrs B has made several complaints to the Council in recent years, the latest of which concluded in April 2021. Her complaint is therefore late. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to come to us.
9. The Ombudsman has the discretion to consider late complaints where there are good reasons to do so. That is not the case here, because investigation cannot achieve anything significant. Mrs B’s son’s care and contact arrangements have been decided in court. The law prevents us from considering matters which have been decided in court. This includes evidence the court considered, including reports produced my social workers. Our intervention could not therefore result in changes in care or contact arrangements.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mrs B’s complaint because it is late and there are no grounds to investigate it now.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman