Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council (22 014 944)
Category : Children's care services > Child protection
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 13 Mar 2023
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this late complaint about the actions of a social worker. There is no good reason to exercise the discretion available to investigate the matter now.
The complaint
- Miss X said a social worker visited her home during a Covid-19 lockdown and made an inappropriate comment, as well as saying her contact with a grandchild would have to be supervised. She says she later lost contact with her grandchild. Miss X wanted the social worker spoken to.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
- 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)
- The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Miss X’s complaint to us was focussed more on the alleged comment than the decision about contact. But both matters date from no later than March 2021, when the last lockdown ended.
- We may exercise discretion to investigate late matter if we think there is a good reason. Sometimes a person discovers a matter long after it happened, or they might have been prevented from complaining at the time. Neither reason applies here.
- Even if the matters were recent, any complaint about contact with a child would be one that could only be resolved by a court.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because it is late and there is no good reason to exercise the discretion available to investigate the matter now.
- Even if the complaint were not late and Miss X wished to pursue contact with her grandchild, this matter would be one where there is a right to go to court it would be reasonable to use. This is because only a court can vary child contact arrangements.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman